Person: Tim Cook

In an era where loud, celebrity CEOs dominate Silicon Valley, Tim Cook is a counterpoint.

The last few years there has been a growing tension between two of the biggest names in technology - Apple’s Tim Cook and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. It started with veiled criticism around Facebook’s data privacy and fake news. Then Apple’s product changes - in particular the iOS 13 privacy and security features - caused a stir amongst all the social media platforms.

A battle over the future direction of the internet is being waged in the boardrooms of two of the internet’s biggest companies. In the ring are Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, and Tim Cook, CEO of Apple. For years, the internet business model has been simple - gather as much data as possible about users and sell that data to third parties, mainly advertisers. Apple, led by Tim Cook, are looking to change that.