In a rare interview with "60 Minutes" that aired Sunday, Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook, Fuqua '88, criticized America's tax code and said accusations that his company schemes to pay little or no corporate taxes on $74 billion held overseas are "total political crap."
A member of the University's Board of Trustees, Cook discussed several topics with "60 Minutes" correspondent Charlie Rose, including the company's practices regarding taxes, labor, encryption and product design.
When asked by Rose why Apple—the world's largest company, worth approximately $600 billion—does not bring more of its offshore holdings to the United States, Cook said that he would "love to" if a more favorable tax code was implemented. Rose noted that approximately two-thirds of the company's revenue is earned overseas.
"This is a tax code that was made for the industrial age, not the digital age," Cook said. "It's backwards. It's awful for America. It should have been fixed many years ago. It's past time to get it done."
Cook, who replaced Steve Jobs as Apple's CEO in 2011 after serving as the company's chief operating officer and joining the company in 1998, also discussed the controversial political topic of encryption in the wake of the November attacks in Paris. Investigators recently found evidence that the terrorists behind the attacks used encrypted apps.
Although he noted that Apple would always cooperate with authorities and provide specific information when it could if a warrant was issued, Cook noted that he is not in favor of creating a backdoor to allow the government to access encrypted communications. He also stressed the importance of privacy for users with iPhones.
"If you put a back door in, that back door is for everybody, for good guys and bad guys," Cook said.
In addition to explaining how the company is improving its foreign labor practices, especially in China, Cook answered questions about his 2014 announcement that he is gay. The first openly gay CEO of a Fortune 500 company, Cook said that he waited to make the announcement for his own privacy, but eventually changed his mind.
"It became increasingly clear to me that if I said something, it could help other people," Cook said. "I couldn't look myself in the mirror without doing it."
The segment also touched on Apple's secrecy regarding its products. No sales figures have been released for the Apple Watch—the first new product launched since Cook became CEO. The Watch has been on the market for eight months, and Cook and other company executives refused to provide more information about future iterations of the watch or other products.
"We probably have more secrecy here than the CIA," Cook said.
Cook was named to Duke's Board of Trustees in July, but has not attended either of the board's meetings so far this academic year.
Although Cook was the focus of the segment, he was not the only executive with Duke ties interviewed for the company profile.
Eddy Cue, Trinity '86 and the company's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, talked with Rose about the company's design and product management processes. Cue helped create iTunes and sat next to Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon and Kevin White, vice president and director of athletics, at Saturday's basketball game between Duke and Utah at Madison Square Garden.
"It's amazing to be able to work at a place where you're building products that everybody in the world uses, whether it's a 2-year old or a 100-year old," Cue said.
Cook also spoke about progress on Apple's new headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., which are expected to house approximately 13,000 workers when completed next year. Cook said he shared information about the construction with the "60 Minutes" team to provide a glimpse into the future, as his mentor Jobs always did.
Although he has been the company's face for four years and been tabbed the world's greatest leader by Fortune Magazine, Cook said that Jobs' vision and pursuit of perfection will always drive Apple's success.
"This is still Steve's company. It was born that way, it's still that way. His spirit will always be the DNA of this company," Cook said. "I have never met anyone on the face of the Earth like him before. It was the privilege of a lifetime."
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