Apple Executive Bozoma Saint John Auctioning 'Power Lunch' to Raise Estimated $10,000 for Charity

[MacRumors]

Apple executive Bozoma Saint John, who serves as the Head of Global Consumer Marketing for Apple Music and iTunes, is auctioning the opportunity to sit down with her for a one-hour "power lunch" in Los Angeles, California within the next year.

Bidding starts at $1,500 on Charitybuzz, the same platform where lunches with Apple CEO Tim Cook have raised nearly $1.7 million combined over the past four consecutive years in support of the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights.

Saint John, known as "Boz," came into the public spotlight when she enthusiastically demoed new Apple Music features at WWDC 2016. Her fun on-stage appearance starts just after the 1 hour and 11 minute mark of the keynote video below.

For iTunes, Boz oversees initiatives for all verticals including film, TV, movies, books and various other forms of entertainment content. Additionally, Boz's years of expertise authentically joining the world's best artists with the world's biggest brands makes her uniquely qualified to help bring Apple Music to consumers globally in a meaningful, impactful and memorable way. [...]

Most recently Saint John stole the show at the keynote to Apple's 2016 World Wide Developers Conference. Buzzfeed's headline even claimed that she is the coolest person to ever go onstage at an Apple event. But as Wired said, she was a bad ass long before she was at Apple.

The charity auction has an estimated value of $10,000, with bids accepted until Thursday, July 21 at 12:12 p.m. Pacific Time. The funds raised will be donated to the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, dedicated to providing inner city youth across New York City with significant exposure to the arts.

Article Link: Apple Executive Bozoma Saint John Auctioning 'Power Lunch' to Raise Estimated $10,000 for Charity

 

[cwagdev]

These things would be a lot more interesting if done as a raffle. The opportunity is way out of reach for the normal person. I also think a $50 raffle to have Lunch with Tim Cook would raise more than the last two lunches combined.

 

[Klae17]

How much to never have to see developers and on stage presenters awkwardly rap again?

 

[Mr-Stabby]

Stole the show? I seem to remember she was rather cringeworthy.

 

[Joe Rossignol]

Stole the show? I seem to remember she was rather cringeworthy.

I respectfully disagree I think she was fun. It's only awkward if you make it awkward

 

[jdillings]

Stole the show? I seem to remember she was rather cringeworthy.

You remember correctly. She was very cringeworthy.

 

[cariacou]

is she single?
[doublepost=1467920166][/doublepost]

These things would be a lot more interesting if done as a raffle. The opportunity is way out of reach for the normal person. I also think a $50 raffle to have Lunch with Tim Cook would raise more than the last two lunches combined.

Unless the winner is stupid, the winning raffle ticket would end up on eBay

 

[Cineplex]

Really??? So this is where Apple is going....watchbands, emojis, and now power lunches. No thanks. These people really think they are that important. Why would anyone pay anything to have lunch with this woman??? They might want to lower the starting bid to $1.

 

[PowerBook-G5]

Is she going to force the person who pays for this to sing along to some hip hop song?

I was not a fan of her portion of the Keynote, nor am I fond of the product which she introduced. She seemed/seems very incredibly self centered. Take a look at her twitter account.

 

[mainstreetmark]

I respectfully disagree I think she was fun. It's only awkward if you make it awkward

If by "you" you mean the entire audience not rapping along with her, then yes, "you" made that part of the presentation awkward.

I did not care for it. "Look! It can play music! Should we all sing along with it? No? Well, we're gonna try."

 

[cube]

First time I heard the name, as I stopped watching keynotes.

 

[now i see it]

Hey, it's all in good fun. If 99.7% of the MR members had to make a presentation of Apple Music at WWDC, we'd all be cringe worthy. Making good presentations is very difficult. At least she had the courage to try. Easy to snicker when sitting in the audience.

 

[keysofanxiety]

I'd pay $10,000 to make sure I don't have lunch with her.

 

[dannyyankou]

Lol, this lunch is for a charity, why is everyone being so negative?

It's for a good cause, I'm glad she's doing this.

 

[estebanrod]

Stole the show? I seem to remember she was rather cringeworthy.

I agree. I wanted to like her, but she wasn't as natural as she thought she seemed.

 

[pushingrobot]

These things would be a lot more interesting if done as a raffle.

It might bring in more money, but she'd have to deal with weird people like me:

"I have to ask what we're all thinking here... He was a controversial figure, to be sure, divisive, egotistical and difficult to work with. But also brilliant, possessed of the spark of genius and the drive to achieve the impossible, and his departure has left a tremendous void. Why do you believe you are the right one to fill it... to fill the boots, quite literally, of the great Tony Stark?"

[in case you're confused]

 

[jclardy]

Stole the show? I seem to remember she was rather cringeworthy.

Nope, she was great. It was the Apple Music updates that were cringeworthy.

 

[HopefulHumanist]

Wow, the hate here is palpable. I guess I shouldn't be shocked since people here find a reason to be negative about anything but damn. I get that not everyone enjoyed her segment, but the hostility is really unjustified.

I respectfully disagree I think she was fun. It's only awkward if you make it awkward

Agreed.

Lol, this lunch is for a charity, why is everyone being so negative?

It's for a good cause, I'm glad she's doing this.

I know, right?

 

[radiology]

Lol, this lunch is for a charity, why is everyone being so negative?

It's for a good cause, I'm glad she's doing this.

Nope. This is not for charity. This is a publicity stunt. She should go back to her office...

Her presentation was awful.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

47 minutes in and not a single bid yet.

I realize we're quite early, but I would guess that nobody is going to bid on this. She hasn't done anything to warrant spending $1500/hour with her.

She hasn't been associated with a single successful product at Apple - she's associated with the disaster that is Apple Music. She wasn't relevant at all with Beats. And I don't know that anybody cares about the people who worked at Pepsi.

Edit: I was wrong. An hour and a half after originally making this post, someone made the $1500 bid. 9 hours ago, it was bumped up to $2000, which is where it's still at.

 

[Cineplex]

Lol, this lunch is for a charity, why is everyone being so negative?

It's for a good cause, I'm glad she's doing this.

Oh please. Let's not be quick to reward her. What is she REALLY giving away? 30 Minutes of her time? She isn't giving anything here. What she is doing is reinforcing her own self worth and upping her ego. She thinks she is a celebrity and is gracefully donating NOTHING. She will probably do it on Apple's clock.

Donating lunches is about ego, self worth, and business networking....not about the cause. If she cared about the cause....let her open her check book...I'm sure she has plenty. And this is less about the charity and more about some rich person getting face time with an Apple executive. I'm sure plenty of normal people are just looking to blow $10k. This is a business lunch...not a customer wins a lunch.

Why can't people see the obvious here? Are people that brainwashed by the Kardashians and social media??

 

[dannyyankou]

Nope. This is not for charity. This is a publicity stunt. She should go back to her office...

Her presentation was awful.

Publicity is good for charity.

 

[yvr]

I think having lunch with her would be a very enlightening and interesting experience. She is obviously a very intelligent and successful woman. Kudos to her for being willing to donate her time for this charity.

 

[SteveW928]

Stole the show? I seem to remember she was rather cringeworthy.

Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking as well. Part of that might be my utter lack of interest in the product she was demo'ing, but it felt really forced to me, and out of touch with the audience (though, they did cheer a lot over emojis, so maybe I'm out of touch with today's developers. But, they just didn't seem like the 'lets rap along' crowd. Nor, did she.)

Really??? So this is where Apple is going....watchbands, emojis, and now power lunches. No thanks. These people really think they are that important. Why would anyone pay anything to have lunch with this woman???

Oh come on... let's be realistic. You don't get to be a head of marketing at a top world company if you're not a very talented person. I'm sure she's much more fun when not trying to force a style in a presentation, and such a conversation would be very valuable to anyone involved in marketing.

Hey, it's all in good fun. If 99.7% of the MR members had to make a presentation of Apple Music at WWDC, we'd all be cringe worthy. Making good presentations is very difficult. At least she had the courage to try. Easy to snicker when sitting in the audience.

Yea, no doubt! But, I also recognize that my skills in that area aren't developed enough, and hopefully others in an organization around me would give me some good advice over content/style in a presentation I was preparing to give. (This seems reflective of nearly everything at Apple at the moment, actually. Trying too hard, comes off a bit cheesy. Not really understanding the audience. Lack of coordination/communication between depts. Etc.)

I'm sure I'll get flamed... but my read on this: The order came down from somewhere to make the presentation fit the new diversity initiatives, along with being 'fun' like all the emoji baloney. So a bunch of people got tapped to give presentations, who aren't as polished in that area as in previous Apple presentations (which were too male and 'white'). That doesn't mean they aren't wonderful, smart, talented people... but they aren't master-presenters, and they were probably told to do something (presentation-wise) they might have otherwise not. She might be 'hip' and 'fun' but for some reason, it didn't come off that way. (Note: it wasn't just her, several of the presentations this time didn't come off that well.)

 

[vigorblade]

I can't believe some of these comments... Actually, I can believe some of these comments. She looks different than the usual Apple lineup... let me not sugar coat it, we are talking about a woman that is also black, who presented at an Apple event. Bozoma Saint John brought a unique energy to that keynote, she has incredible personality and she literally woke up that crowd, who were half way unconscious. Whether they sang along or not is irrelevant, people were genuinely showing interest in the presentation. Let's see how many will say that these negative responses have nothing to do with the combination of ethnicity and gender.