Andrea Jung Joins Apple's Board Of Directors

[MacRumors]

Apple has announced that Andrea Jung has been elected to Apple's board. Andrea also serves as Chairman and CEO of Avon Products, board member of General Electric, and member of the New York Presbyterian Hospital board of trustees and the Catalyst board of directors.

"Andrea is a strong CEO and marketer and we look forward to benefiting from her insights and experience as a member of Apple’s board,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Andrea will be our eighth board member, and I think she will add a new dimension to our already lively board discussions.”

"Apple is clearly one of the most innovative companies in the world today," said Andrea Jung, chairman and chief executive officer of Avon Products. “I feel privileged to join this exciting and dynamic team and look forward to working closely with Steve and the board during the next phase of Apple’s growth.”

At Avon, Andrea is responsible for developing and executing all of the company’s long-term growth strategies, launching new brand initiatives, developing earnings opportunities for women worldwide, and defining Avon as the premier direct seller of beauty products. She was elected president of global marketing in 1996, an executive vice president in 1997, president and a director of the company in 1998, chief operating officer from 1998 to 1999, chief executive officer in 1999 and chairman of the board in 2001. Previously, she was executive vice president of Neiman Marcus and a senior vice president for I. Magnin.

Andrea is a magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University, is fluent in Mandarin and was the first woman elected chair of the Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association in March 2001, a role she held until early 2005.

She joins fellow board members Bill Campbell (Chairman and former CEO of Intuit), Millard Drexler (Chairman and CEO of J. Crew), Albert Gore (Former Vice President of the United States), Steve Jobs (CEO, Apple), Arthur D. Levinson Ph.D (Chairman and CEO of Genentech), Dr. Eric Schmidt (CEO of Google), and Jerry York (Chairman, President, and CEO of Harwinton Capital)

Article Link

[Bruizer]

Things don't smell right at Apple anymore:-)

[PaulinMaryland]

At the risk of sounding like a Neanderthal... Andrea is smokin' hot!

[Dreyfus]

Scented MacBooks next Tuesday

[AdeFowler]

I bet she's made up with that.

[samh004]

Do you think their board meetings are all held over iChat, as they all seem to be very busy people in many different other lines of work at the same time. I can't imagine how hard it must be to get them all in the same room.

And on a geeky note, does Steve have a version of iChat that works with 8 users, instead of 4.

[Popeye206]

Oh no! Now we're going to have Pink iPods and iMacs!

[sunfast]

Originally Posted by samh004

Do you think their board meetings are all held over iChat, as they all seem to be very busy people in many different other lines of work at the same time. I can't imagine how hard it must be to get them all in the same room.

And on a geeky note, does Steve have a version of iChat that works with 8 users, instead of 4.

No, they'll use an IM client that actually works

I'm pissed off with iChat at the moment

[gifford]

Quite a line up of directors (bar Albert Gore).

But is this Apples future..

[jholzner]

Originally Posted by sunfast

No, they'll use an IM client that actually works

I'm pissed off with iChat at the moment

Hm. iChat works perfectly for me including video/audio and file sharing with quicklook.

[iJawn108]

Andrea is a magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University

Arn't most jersey girls.

JK

[iconboy]

Originally Posted by PaulinMaryland

At the risk of sounding like a Neanderthal... Andrea is smokin' hot!

you dont risk sounding like a neanderthal, you risk sounding like you have very bad taste in women! lol that is one ugly looking woman- or a very very pretty man.

btw, why as an average consumer should i care about this? and why is it front page news on a mac RUMOR site?

[BornAgainMac]

iChat HD Pro CEO Edition.

[damacus]

DING DONG, the Avon lady!

[Small White Car]

Originally Posted by iconboy

btw, why as an average consumer should i care about this? and why is it front page news on a mac RUMOR site?

An "average" consumer shouldn't even be here. When Apple makes an announcement most big newspapers will report it the next day in their tech columns. That's all an average consumer needs to know. Just by being here you've proved you care about small details like this.

[sebastianlewis]

Apparently she's also on the Board of Directors at General Electric, and she also focuses a lot on corporate image, I guess you have to with a makeup company. Right now it appears Avon is in cost cutting mode if this is anything to go by. Well whatever, I can't do any proper research in only 20 minutes before school so I'll leave it to someone else to pull up information as to why Apple may have brought her on board.

Sebastian

[dukeblue91]

Originally Posted by PaulinMaryland

At the risk of sounding like a Neanderthal... Andrea is smokin' hot!

Average at best.

[Aniej]

While I'm more indifferent about this addition to the Board of Directors than annoyed, I am a bit puzzled about what it is that Apple seeks to derive from her contribution to the company's governance. I understand why Schmidt, Gore, and literally every other member of the Board was asked to join, but just don't get the angle Jung brings. In reaching for some reasoned basis for her inclusion, the closest I get is the high end design and consumer market, but even then it seems to be a bit of a stretch.

Anyone else have thoughts?

Google Finance description of Avon Products, Inc. - a global manufacturer and marketer of beauty and related products. Its products fall into three product categories: Beauty, which consists of cosmetics, fragrances, skin care and toiletries (CFT); Beauty Plus, which consists of fashion jewelry, watches, apparel and accessories, and Beyond Beauty, which consists of home products and gift and decorative products. Sales from Health and Wellness products and mark., a global cosmetics brand that focuses on the market for young women, are included among these three categories based on product type. Its business is conducted worldwide primarily in one channel, direct selling. The Company’s segments are based on geographic operations in six regions: North America; Latin America; western Europe, Middle East & Africa; Central & Eastern Europe; Asia Pacific, and China.

[Arcus]

iLipgloss

[Max E Verde]

Screw Avon, she's on the board of GE! Maybe she can help NBC and Apple solve their differences and possibly get NBC TV shows back on iTunes along with Universal movies and iTunes plus music (hoping).

[Aniej]

Originally Posted by PaulinMaryland

At the risk of sounding like a Neanderthal... Andrea is smokin' hot!

Smokin hot? that's a pretty bold statement! I'd go more with somewhat attractive at best, but to each his, or perhaps her, own.

[Queso]

Originally Posted by Max E Verde

Screw Avon, she's on the board of GE! Maybe she can help NBC and Apple solve their differences and possibly get NBC TV shows back on iTunes along with Universal movies and iTunes plus music (hoping).

At least someone gets it. Well done that man

[MrCrowbar]

Originally Posted by jholzner

Hm. iChat works perfectly for me including video/audio and file sharing with quicklook.

You lucky b******
Only appleeu3test01,02 , and 03 work for me. No matter which network I'm on, it doesn't work.

It would make sense those board meetings are done over telecommunication. I think they use regular phone lines though, as those are hard to get listened to by rumor sites.

[carlitofox]

Originally Posted by sebastianlewis

Apparently she's also on the Board of Directors at General Electric, and she also focuses a lot on corporate image, I guess you have to with a makeup company. Right now it appears Avon is in cost cutting mode if this is anything to go by. Well whatever, I can't do any proper research in only 20 minutes before school so I'll leave it to someone else to pull up information as to why Apple may have brought her on board.

Sebastian

(Max E beat me to it ......)

hello don't GE own NBC ?????

Steve pulls a master stroke once more.

[Small White Car]

Originally Posted by Aniej

Anyone else have thoughts?

Yeah. From your description of things she's in charge of at Avon: "fashion jewelry, watches, apparel and accessories."

This may be hard for people here to understand, but there are a LOT of people out there who make MP3 player choices based on looks over gigabytes.

The iPod Mini sold amazingly well even though it offered less horsepower than the regular iPod at the time. Why? Because there were a ton of people who wanted something smaller and more colurful. That was an amazing success for Apple, and it's the reason the Nano of today comes in more than just 'white.'

This is the kind of thing this woman seems to be an expert at and just because we don't really care so much about it doesn't mean it's not important. Ask yourself this: How many times have you seen the Zune's color mentioned in reviews of it? I'm betting it's more than once, hmm?

EDIT: And I'm not saying she'll be designing anything, but when Ives comes up with all sorts of ideas he has to ask someone "which of these is going to be most popular with the kids this year?" Great art is one thing, but at some point you have to narrow it down to what will sell best.