DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA — OCT 6, 2025
The Board of Trustees (BoT) is the university’s governing body, responsible for overseeing Duke’s financial decisions and its investment company, DUMAC. But how much do we really know about who serves on that Board? This series examines the financial interests and political entanglements of key trustees to reveal how their connections and incentives may conflict with the values and interests of the Duke community — including its students, faculty, and workers.
Every Monday from October 6 through November 6, we’ll feature a member of Duke’s Board of Trustees as part of Follow the Money Mondays.
OCT 6 — WHO IS TIM COOK? CEO of Apple | Duke MBA ‘88 | Duke BoT Member
Tim Cook is the CEO of Apple. His net worth is estimated at $2.5 billion. Like other tech leaders, he has been flattering Donald Trump in return for US investment in his company. He recently gifted Trump a 24k gold plaque to thank him for a $600 billion investment.
Apple is complicit in multiple dimensions of Israeli apartheid and genocide. Current and former Apple employees in Apples Against Apartheid have called on Tim Cook to acknowledge genocide in Palestine and Congo. This complicity includes underhiring of qualified Palestinians in Apple’s Israel offices, economic complicity, retaliatory firings, collective punishment of anti-genocide Muslims and Jews, including the ongoing shutdown of the Muslims@Apple Diversity Network Association channel, and refusal to acknowledge loss of Palestinian life. Apple also has a research and development institution in Tel Aviv. In October 2023, Apple, alongside Google and Waze, disabled live traffic updates in Gaza and various parts of Israel at the request of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) before the start of a military operation. In April 2024, Apple employees and shareholders released an open letter urging the company to end donation matching for groups tied to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and settlement expansion in the West Bank. They called for a review of eligible charities, including Friends of the IDF and others supporting illegal Israeli settlements.
Are these the people we should trust to make decisions about Duke’s future during this critical time?
Stay tuned for next week’s Follow the Money Monday feature on October 13.
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