Today, Time magazine unveiled its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Not surprisingly, in the absence of late Apple icon Steve Jobs, the iPhone-making tech juggernaut is still represented in two significant ways: through the inclusion of Time’s list of new Apple CEO Tim Cook and bestselling Steve Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson.
Former Vice President and longtime Apple board member Al Gore wrote a touching tribute to Cook in the publication.
“It is difficult to imagine a harder challenge than following the legendary Steve Jobs as CEO of Apple. Yet Tim Cook, a soft-spoken, genuinely humble and quietly intense son of an Alabama shipyard worker and a homemaker, hasn’t missed a single beat,” Gore writes. “Fiercely protective of Jobs’ legacy and deeply immersed in Apple’s culture, Cook, 51, has already led the world’s most valuable and innovative company to new heights while implementing major policy changes smoothly and brilliantly. He has indelibly imprinted his leadership on all areas of Apple — from managing its complex inner workings to identifying and shepherding new “insanely great” technology and design breakthroughs into the product pipeline.”
To read more about Tim Cook and the other celebrated figures on Time’s prestigious list, be sure to pick up next week’s copy of Time magazine.