What Made Angela Ahrendts Leave Burberry For Apple?

Angela Ahrendts

When you’re the CEO of a company, life can be pretty good. That is especially true for when you are the CEO of a company like Burberry, as that is exactly what Angela Ahrendts was. When you’re in business there really aren’t any positions higher than the CEO. So why would a CEO leave to take a job as a Senior Vice President somewhere else? That’s technically a demotion, right? But that’s exactly what Angela did. After working as the CEO of Burberry for eight years, she stepped down to become the Senior Vice President of Retail and Online Sales for Apple. So what made her do this?

Well first of all, as great and amazing as Burberry is, Apple is still a much larger company and they are arguably the most valuable company in the entire world right now. Going from fashion to technology seems like a strange transition, but Ahrendts wanted to make it work all because of one man: Tim Cook. She recalled the first time she met Tim as an extremely memorable experience saying, “I walked away thinking wow, that’s a man of peace”. She has explained in a few interviews that she became very fond of Tim and the work he was doing, saying “I just absolutely loved his integrity, his values. Nothing anybody can write, say, or do is going to take him off of always doing the right thing…the world needs more leaders like Tim”.

She eventually would move over to Apple and quickly became a good fit for the company. Cook said that “within a week, it felt like she’s been there multiple years. When you start to finish each other’s sentences, this is a good thing”. So it essentially seems like the two have a business romance and work really well together. Ultimately the reason she stepped down as boss at one company, to work under someone at another was due to Tim Cook.

Photo by Samir Hussein/Getty Images for International Herald Tribune

Written by Sebastian Hensiek

From Philadelphia, Sebastian is a fan of music, writing, art, and entertainment.