Most of us are familiar with Google's motto of "Do no evil." Does that hold true when the company's CEO is out helping other companies? Dr. Eric Schmidt has accepted a new position on the board of directors of Apple, putting another feather in an already very full cap. Fear not, he will still be keeping his position as CEO of Google.
The move brings Apple's board up to eight members, each with considerable expertise in the industry somewhere. For those unfamiliar with corporate governance, the board is a group of appointed individuals who are not employees of the company (except one or two members, who are usually CEO and CFO), but instead are heads from around the industry or extremely large shareholders. The group functions much like a governmental body - passing corporate legislation for the CEO and others to implement to steer the company's course. In most companies, the board also has the power to hire or fire the CEO, CFO, and other VIPs and figureheads of the company.
This isn't Dr. Schmidt's first time on a board, as he is already serving as a trustee for Princeton University. It also isn't his first trip around the block with a hardware company - previous to his position at Google, Schmidt was CEO of Novell and CTO of Sun Microsystems.
Of course, the biggest question that arises from all of this is, what is Google's relationship to Apple? A director position doesn't just fall in your lap, so to speak, even if you're Eric Schmidt. Clearly, he and Apple have had enough working relations for them to believe he is a good fit for the job, which will now publicly link the two companies.
Could we be seeing a new partnership in the making? Let us know your thoughts in our forums.
The move brings Apple's board up to eight members, each with considerable expertise in the industry somewhere. For those unfamiliar with corporate governance, the board is a group of appointed individuals who are not employees of the company (except one or two members, who are usually CEO and CFO), but instead are heads from around the industry or extremely large shareholders. The group functions much like a governmental body - passing corporate legislation for the CEO and others to implement to steer the company's course. In most companies, the board also has the power to hire or fire the CEO, CFO, and other VIPs and figureheads of the company.
This isn't Dr. Schmidt's first time on a board, as he is already serving as a trustee for Princeton University. It also isn't his first trip around the block with a hardware company - previous to his position at Google, Schmidt was CEO of Novell and CTO of Sun Microsystems.
Of course, the biggest question that arises from all of this is, what is Google's relationship to Apple? A director position doesn't just fall in your lap, so to speak, even if you're Eric Schmidt. Clearly, he and Apple have had enough working relations for them to believe he is a good fit for the job, which will now publicly link the two companies.
Could we be seeing a new partnership in the making? Let us know your thoughts in our forums.
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