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Tim Cook is the most popular CEO of 2012

The Apple chief has been named the highest rated CEO of 2012 by Glassdoor, a jobs and careers website.

Joe Svetlik Reporter
Joe has been writing about consumer tech for nearly seven years now, but his liking for all things shiny goes back to the Gameboy he received aged eight (and that he still plays on at family gatherings, much to the annoyance of his parents). His pride and joy is an Infocus projector, whose 80-inch picture elevates movie nights to a whole new level.
Joe Svetlik
2 min read

Tim Cook knew he had big shoes to fill when he took over from Steve Jobs last summer. But he seems to be doing a bang-up job, if a new report is anything to go by.

Cook was named top-rated CEO of 2012 by Glassdoor, a jobs and careers website, BGR reports. He was awarded a 97 per cent approval rating. The study is based purely on what employees think of their boss. So it seems almost everyone at Apple rates the Cookmeister.

Employees were asked just one question: do you approve of the way your CEO is leading the company? One Apple employee was quoted as saying: "I think leadership is doing an amazing job. We have the best management team anywhere." Though maybe they were angling for a raise.

The top five is well represented by tech CEOs. Joint second was Qualcomm's Paul Jacobs (with Ernst & Young's Jim Turley). Below them sits American Express's Ken Chenault, and then Google's Larry Page.

HP's Meg Whitman is the only woman in the list. She achieved an 80 per cent approval rating, made all the more impressive since she only took over late last year. Paul Otellini of Intel came in with a 90 per cent approval rating.

Tim Cook has overseen Apple since last summer, taking to the stage to unveil the iPhone 4S and new iPad. It's not all been plain sailing though -- recently he went to Foxconn's factories in China to see the working conditions that have proved so controversial in making products for Apple and other tech companies.

The Fair Labor Association outlined various problems in the factories, including long shifts, excessive working hours, lax safety, and unfair overtime payment structures. Overtime will now be measured in 15-minute increments instead of 30, for example. Previously if someone worked 29 minutes extra, they wouldn't earn any more as they fell short of the 30-minute shift. Which doesn't seem very fair.

What do you think of Apple since Tim Cook took over? Is it unfair to compare him to Steve Jobs? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook page.