Tim Cook Nominated for TIME's 2014 Person of the Year

TIME today posted its shortlist of people who are being considered for the publication's annual "Person of the Year" award, and Tim Cook is once again on the nomination list. TIME is recognizing Cook for the launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus and his recent decision to come out as gay.

Back in late October, Tim Cook made the bold move of announcing his sexual orientation in a letter written for Bloomberg Businessweek, where he said that his decision was done to "bring comfort to anyone who feels alone" and to "inspire people to insist on their equality."

Alongside Tim Cook, other nominees include the Ferguson protestors, the Ebola caregivers, Russian president Vladimir Putin, pop artist Taylor Swift, Alibaba CEO Jack Ma, acting president of the Iraqi Kurdish Region Masoud Barzani, and National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell.

timepersonoftheyear2014

2014 Person of the Year nominees, via TIME

Tim Cook, who introduced Apple's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, Apple Watch, and Apple Pay this year, and whose decision to come out made him the first openly gay Fortune 500 CEO.

TIME's Person of the Year award is given to "a person, couple, group, idea, place, or machine" that has "for better or for worse done the most to influence the events of the year," with the publication's editorial team ultimately deciding on a winner.

Tim Cook was previously nominated in 2012 alongside Yahoo CEO Marissa Meyer, Bill and Hilary Clinton, and the three scientists who discovered the Higgs Boson, but the award went to U.S. president Barack Obama. In 2013, the Person of the Year award went to Pope Francis, and in 2010, it went to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the only tech company CEO to receive the award since Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos won in 1999.

Update December 10: TIME has named the "Ebola Fighters" as its Person of the Year for 2014.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Popular Stories

Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock Light

iOS 19 Leak Reveals All-New Design

Friday January 17, 2025 2:42 pm PST by
iOS 19 is still around six months away from being announced, but a new leak has allegedly revealed a completely redesigned Camera app. Based on footage it obtained, YouTube channel Front Page Tech shared a video showing what the new Camera app will apparently look like, with the key change being translucent menus for camera controls. Overall, the design of these menus looks similar to...
2024 iPhone Boxes Feature

Apple Changes Trade-In Values for iPhones, iPads, Macs, and More

Thursday January 16, 2025 6:45 am PST by
Apple today adjusted estimated trade-in values for select iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch models in the U.S., according to its website. Some values increased, while others decreased. The changes were not too significant, with most values rising or dropping by $5 to $50. We have outlined some examples below: Device New Value Old Value iPhone 15 Pro Max Up to $630 U ...
2024 App Store Awards

Apple Explains Why It Removed TikTok From the App Store in the U.S.

Sunday January 19, 2025 6:58 am PST by
Apple on late Saturday removed TikTok from the App Store in the U.S., and it has now explained why it was required to take this action. Last year, the U.S. passed a law that required Chinese company ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok due to potential national security risks, or else the platform would be banned. That law went into effect today, and companies like Apple and Google...
Generic iOS 18

Everything New in iOS 18.3 Beta 3

Thursday January 16, 2025 12:39 pm PST by
Apple provided the third beta of iOS 18.3 to developers today, and while the betas have so far been light on new features, the third beta makes some major changes to Notification Summaries and also tweaks a few other features. Notification Summary Changes Apple made multiple changes to Notification Summaries in response to complaints about inaccurate summaries of news headlines. For...
iOS 19 Roundup Feature

iOS 19 Rumored to Be Compatible With These iPhones

Saturday January 18, 2025 10:28 am PST by
iOS 19 will not drop support for any iPhone models, according to French website iPhoneSoft.fr. The report cited a source who said iOS 19 will be compatible with any iPhone that can run iOS 18, which would mean the following models: iPhone 16 iPhone 16 Plus iPhone 16 Pro iPhone 16 Pro Max iPhone 15 iPhone 15 Plus iPhone 15 Pro iPhone 15 Pro Max iPhone 14 iPhon...
iPad Pro vs iPhone 17 Air Feature

Here's How Thin the iPhone 17 Air Might Be

Friday January 17, 2025 3:38 pm PST by
For the last several months, we've been hearing rumors about a redesigned version of the iPhone 17 that Apple might call the iPhone 17 "Air," or something along those lines. It's going to replace the iPhone 17 Plus as Apple's fourth iPhone option, and it will be offered alongside the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max. We know the iPhone 17 Air is going to be super slim, but...
mail categories macos

Apple's Redesigned Mail App is Expanding to the Mac — Here's When

Sunday January 19, 2025 6:02 am PST by
Apple plans to expand the iPhone's redesigned Mail app to the Mac starting with macOS 15.4, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. The first macOS 15.4 beta should be made available in the coming weeks, and Apple has previously suggested that the iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, and macOS 15.4 series of software updates will be released to the public in April. The revamped Mail app debuted on all...
apple power beats pro 2

Powerbeats Pro 2 Coming Soon: Apple to Announce Them 'Imminently'

Sunday January 19, 2025 8:25 am PST by
In September, Apple said that it would be launching Powerbeats Pro 2 in 2025, and it appears the wireless earbuds are coming very soon. Powerbeats Pro 2 images found in iOS 18 code In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the Powerbeats Pro 2 are "due imminently." In addition to Apple filing the Powerbeats Pro 2 in regulatory databases last month, Gurman said Apple is...

Top Rated Comments

NutsNGum Avatar
132 months ago
Vladimir Putin?

TIME, please.
Score: 49 Votes (Like | Disagree)
pk7 Avatar
132 months ago
Putin, Person of the Year?

Might as well nominate Kim Jong Un, too.
Score: 32 Votes (Like | Disagree)
d4rkc4sm Avatar
132 months ago
being gay is not a big deal. releasing a big iphone is not a big deal. seriously tim cook?

so a bunch of editors sit around a table and come out with a list, big whoopie-doo.
Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bradl Avatar
132 months ago
being gay is not a big deal. releasing a big iphone is not a big deal. seriously tim cook?

so a bunch of editors sit around a table and come out with a list, big whoopie-doo.

Being gay in a world where gays and lesbians are still persecuted or killed for who and what they are is sure as hell a big deal. And for someone who the head of one of the biggest companies in the world to come out as gay is a big deal. That gives others hope that it can and will get better.

BL.
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Rogifan Avatar
132 months ago
I'm sorry but in no way, shape or form was Tim Cook the most relevant/important/noteworthy person of 2014. These lists are a joke.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
aerok Avatar
132 months ago
Taylor Swift person of the year ?

Just wow.


that's all I got.

Putin? how about Swift? At least Putin could be voted person of the year via "the worst" Swift - be cause she's pretty??? LAme!

Putin, Person of the Year?

Might as well nominate Kim Jong Un, too.

Vladimir Putin?

TIME, please.

This is not about the best/nicest/coolest person of the year. It's for the most influential. Has nothing to do with good vs evil.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)