Dukie has big payday at Apple Computer, just shy of $400 million

✔ As Loyal Readers know, Steve Jobs bowed out at the head honcho at Apple because of his health, and the man who has filled in for him three times over the years got the job permanently.

The new CEO: Timothy D. Cook, Fuqua MBA '88.

We were able to report on Cook's compensation last year: as chief operating officer of Apple, Cook had a salary of $800,000, a bonus of $5 million, and got restricted stock worth $59 million.

By contrast, Jobs took only $1 a year. But as founder of Apple, his stock was worth $8.3 billion as of March.

So... come on Fact Checker... what's the news. Enough with the background.

According to an Apple 8K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the directors of Apple cemented the deal with Cook by giving him 1,000,000 shares of stock, worth $383,580,000. The value has since jiggled up a bit.

Cook must wait until 2016 for half the shares to vest and 2021 for the remainder. All subject to his continued employment.

Apple has yet to disclose what Cook's annual salary and perks will be -- aside from this signing bonus.

Irene: Duke, Durham should escape with conditions no worse than a good thunderstorm. Storm weakens as it nears Outer Banks.

✔✔✔Following includes the 2 AM Saturday update from the National Hurricane Center.

Downed trees. Some wires. Some flooding. That's the most likely scenario for Duke and Durham.

In fact, the city is so confident that it has held off opening its emergency command post -- and it's allowed 11 firefighters trained in search and rescue to go to Rocky Mount in preparation for deployment to the coastline. Another team could go, too, if the situation warrants.

At Duke, aside from the Marine Lab in the ocean town of Beaumont, which is evacuated until further notice, the big news is the early return of upperclassmen. Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta blasted e-mail on Tuesday offering everyone the chance to come early to avoid the hurricane on Saturday. Only incomplete totals are available: 671 students moved into West starting Thursday. We do not know if that includes all of Friday. And the PR department made no numbers available for Central campus.

As FC has previously noted, the University changes the URL for storm advisories every time there is an update. We consider this particularly dumb; we give you the latest available, not at all confident if you look that it will not have been superseded.

http://today.duke.edu/2011/08/bracingforirene

Durham forecast: peak winds between 1 and 5 PM Saturday. Sustained around 30 mph, gusts to 55. The amount of rain expected has increased dramatically from earlier forecasts, which is good given the medium drought in the area. New prediction: 2 to 5 inches. Old prediction 1 inch.

The National Hurricane Center has not focused precisely on where Irene may landfall -- saying only southeastern North Carolina. Nor is there a precise time beyond saying in the afternoon.

As of 2 AM Saturday, the storm had lost a bit of power, its sustained winds now 90 miles an hour versus 100 three hours earlier. Still gusts to 125 though.

The storm h as returned to the 14 mile an hour forward pace it's had for much of its life. The movement three hours earlier was 13 miles an hour.

There's still plenty of wind, rain, and surge to go around. "The hazards are still the same," Hurricane Center specialist Mike Brennan said. "The emphasis for this storm is on its size and duration, not necessarily how strong the strongest winds are."

The Hurricane Center updates these statistics every three hours.

After blasting North Carolina's beaches, the storm will follow the coast-line north, where extensive preparations are underway. In New York City, 370,000 people have been ordered out of their homes. These include some low-lying areas, plus Battery Park City, a nest of high-rises built on landfill over New York harbor. The big fear is flooding and a storm surge.

The mandatory evacuations are unprecedented. So is the total shut down of the city's mass transit system at noon Saturday. No subways. No city buses. No suburban buses. No suburban trains. All airports are closed. In Atlantic City, New Jersey, for only the third time since gambling became legal 33 years ago, all casinos are closed.

Hurricane Irene weakens to Category 2. Here are 5 AM Friday statistics

Scroll down. There are five posts on the hurricane:

1) Latest statistics on the storm
2) Duke prof welcomes Irene, says it's good for Outer Banks
3) Threat to Outer Banks and eastern seaboard
4) Situation at Duke and in Durham
5) Basketball team tries to fly in before storm.

The following are 5 AM satistics. The National Hurricane Center will update every three hours throughout the day. Unfortunately, Fact Checker is unavailable, and will not update here until midnight Friday.

✔✔✔✔✔
✔✔✔✔✔ The storm has weakened just a bit to Category 2. However, some forecasters believe it will landfall as a Category 3, meaning "devastating" effect. There seems to be no longer a danger of a Category 4 "catastrophic" effect.

Here is the discussion on this point from the Hurricane Center:

WATER VAPOR IMAGERY AND ANALSYES FROM CIMSS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
WISCONSIN SUGGEST THAT IRENE IS ENCOUNTERING LIGHT TO MODERATE
SOUTHWESTERLY VERTICAL WIND SHEAR. THIS...ALONG WITH THE CURRENT
CYCLONE STRUCTURE AND DRY AIR ADVECTING TOWARD THE HURRICANE IN
WATER VAPOR IMAGERY...ARGUE AGAINST SIGNIFICANT STRENGTHENING....
AND INDEED THE INTENSITY GUIDANCE SHOWS LITTLE CHANGE IN STRENGTH
BEFORE LANDFALL. ON THE OTHER HAND...THE EYEWALL CONVECTION IS
CURRENTLY STRONG...AND THE SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURES ALONG THE
FORECAST TRACK ARE 28-29C. THIS SUGGESTS SOME MODEST STRENGTHENING
IS POSSIBLE.

Sustained winds 110 an hour.

Going north at 14 miles an hour, unusually slow since many storms move at 30.

Pressure 942 mb. Very low.

Eye 20 miles wide

Landfall estimate 36 hours (5 PM Saturday)

Hurricane Irene: Duke prof says nasty storm will be good for Outer Banks

✔✔✔✔✔ A Duke professor welcomes the hurricane!

Who is this dude?

This following is not a misquote. Here are the words of Orrin Pilkey, James B. Duke Professor emeritus of geology in the Nicholas School of the Environment: "The storm that is coming up the coast here is just what the islands need."

Wait a second. The Outer Banks -- the thin, long line of barrier islands jutting into the sea -- will take the brunt on Saturday. Property will be destroyed. Wildlife will drown. Salt spray from the waves will kill vegetation that lives on fresh water.

The professor: "We are going to see an awful lot of buildings destroyed and an awful lot of buildings damaged... And because it's so slow-moving, there are not only going to be high winds and big waves, but they are going to last a long time."

So where's the flip side, the good? Pilkey -- author of "A Celebration of the World's Barrier Islands," told the Los Angeles Times -- of all papers, one that is clear cross country -- that storms of this magnitude are essential to the islands' survival. "Heavy storms bring new sand to the islands, helping them stay at sea level rather than eroding and disappearing into the sea."

"It's a strange thing to live in a place where a natural disaster is essential for the environment. Californians who live in fire-prone areas are familiar with this dilemma. For people, fires are catastrophes, but some of us live in environments that depend on fire for survival...... A naturalist living on a barrier island knows that protecting your house is not a good thing. Because protecting your house ends up destroying the beach."

Hurricane Irene: Basketball team

✔✔✔✔✔ The Duke basketball team -- having beaten its opponent in China three times and a team in Dubai once -- is trying for one more victory: to beat Hurricane Irene's arrival in North Carolina.

The team and hangers-on aboard a chartered jet will fly home almost 12 hours early, sacrificing time in their $800 hotel rooms nestled on the Arabian Gulf.

Yes $800 a night. Single rate, one night includes taxes and service charge.

Originally scheduled into Raleigh Durham Airport at 4 PM Saturday, the new arrival time is 5:30 AM.

The chartered plane is a Boeing 757. While pilots have a great deal of discretion, the manufacturer's manual advises a cross-wind limit of 29 knots, or 33 miles an hour. The hurricane is most likely to cause far heavier winds when it strikes later in the day.

While the eye is likely to follow the shore-line north, the storm is unusually large -- with hurricane force winds of at least 74 miles an hour extending out 70 miles. Tropical force winds of at least 40 miles an hour extend 255 miles in all directions. The airport is roughly 100 miles from the shore-line.

The charter airline is thus hoping the Duke plane gets here just in time. Other options include holding the plane at its refueling stop (we believe in Anchorage) or seeking a safer airport inland.

✔Final basketball note: , since the uber expensive charter for the team and fans was first announced, FC has made a point of saying you really did not get very much for your money if you went along. Some Loyal Readers challenged our assertion that the jet was narrow-bodied with seating 3 and 3, meaning you had a 33 percent chance of being in a middle seat.

Well all of us were right; originally a 757 3-3 was scheduled. Then the plane was upgraded to a 767, which is 2-3-2 seat configuration. However, the 767 had a mechanical problem that kept it on the ground at Raleigh Durham, and 24 hours later, the 757 was substituted.

In describing the 757, FC said it had business class seats. This was wrong. The team members -- some approaching seven feet -- are wedged into a limited number of "premium economy" seats -- a little more leg room and a 2-2 configuration but still economy seats. This will also affect Coach K, whose contract gives him a private jet when he is not with the team.

Thanks for reading Fact Checker!

Hurricane Irene: after the Outer Banks, northward

✔✔✔✔✔ This hurricane is unusual. After making landdfall, probably around Wilmington NC on Saturday evening, it will hug the coastline as it goes north. Thus, 65 million people are directly in its path. Unprecedented.

Along its path, the storm is likely to be the worst in two generations -- a "once in fifty years" hurricane. It is rare in that it threatens every state along the seaboard -- with governors in Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut also declaring emergencies. That's 65 million people.

In Washington, Sunday's dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. statue has been postponed.

NYC Mayor Bloomberg has warned a quarter million people to leave their homes, and says he will order evacuations if necessary. These include residents of traditional areas affected by storm surges, like Coney Island, but also the new and very expensive high-rise towers of Battery Park City, built on landfill at the tip of Manhattan for commuters who want to walk to Wall Street. The New York City subway system is preparing to shut down if need be -- an unheard of precaution.

Hurricane Irene: Duke and regional preparations

"Conditions will deteriorate overnight Friday into Saturday across the eastern half of the state," said WRAL Chief Meteorologist Greg Fishel. "We are in for a very long couple of days."

✔✔✔✔✔ In the Duke area, the winds are the only true danger. While the storm is dumping up to 12 inches of rain in the Bahamas, forecasters are sticking with a prediction of only one inch locally. Too bad; the area is in a mini-drought.

Best estimate of the winds: 50 miles an hour at their peak.

At Duke, there was minimal preparation.

Generators were checked, procedures were reviewed. Upperclassmen previously scheduled to come in starting on Friday, were permitted into their rooms on Thursday, though hardly any knew this was the case. And all student events scheduled through the weekend are still on.

Here is the current official Duke update. We warn our Loyal Readers that Duke keeps changing the URL when it posts new information, so if you check, this may or may not be the latest. A rather totally dumb way of doing it.

http://today.duke.edu/2011/08/irenecoast

✔✔✔✔✔ The University evacuated its Marine Laboratory in the seaport of Beaufort, NC at noon on Thursday, where one of the main dangers is a storm surge.

Hurricane Irene: Earlier story

Remember to scroll down. Good stuff on Thursday too!!

The following was updated 8 PM Thursday. At 2 AM Friday the National Weather Service said the hurricane's strength and movement had not changed from earlier. Next full report at 5 AM Friday.
✔✔✔✔✔
✔✔✔✔✔ The Duke basketball team -- having beaten its opponent in China three times and a team in Dubai once -- is trying for one more victory: to beat Hurricane Irene's arrival in North Carolina.

The team and hangers-on aboard a chartered jet will fly home almost 12 hours early, sacrificing a night in their $800 a room hotel nestled on the Arabian Gulf. Originally scheduled into Raleigh Durham Airport at 4 PM Saturday, the new arrival time is 5:30 AM.

Yes $800 a night. Single rate, one night includes taxes and service charge

The chartered plane is a Boeing 757. While pilots have a great deal of discretion, the manufacturer's manual advises a cross-wind limit of 29 knots, or 33 miles an hour. The hurricane is most likely to cause far heavier winds when it strikes later in the day.

While the eye is likely to follow the shore-line north, the storm is unusually large -- with hurricane force winds of at least 74 miles an hour extending out 70 miles. Tropical force winds of at least 40 miles an hour extend 255 miles in all directions. The airport is roughly 100 miles from the shore-line.

The charter airline is thus hoping the Duke plane gets here just in time. Other options include holding the plane at its refueling stop (we believe in Anchorage) or seeking a safer airport inland.

In the Duke area, the winds are the only true danger. While the storm is dumping up to 12 inches of rain in the Bahamas, forecasters are sticking with a prediction of only one inch locally. Too bad; the area is in a mini-drought.

Governor Perdue has declared a state of emergency for all counties in North Carolina east of Interstate 95, which runs roughly 20 miles east of Raleigh. Evacuations are underway in beach areas, in some cases involving only tourists, in others involving everyone.

Thursday night, President Obama, vacationing on Martha's Vineyard off the Massachusetts which may well have its own Irene problems late in the weekend, declared an emergency in North Carolina. Federal aid will supplement state and local responses to the storm, and the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) can coordinate all disaster relief efforts.

Further north, the storm is likely to be the worst in two generations -- a "once in fifty years" hurricane. It is also rare in that it threatens every state along the seaboard -- with governors in Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut also declaring emergencies. That's 65 million people.

In Washington, Sunday's dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. statue has been postponed.

NYC Mayor Bloomberg has warned a quarter million people to leave their homes, and says he will order evacuations if necessary. These include residents of traditional areas affected by storm surges, like Coney Island, but also the new and very expensive high-rise towers of Battery Park City, built on landfill at the tip of Manhattan for commuters who want to walk to Wall Street. The New York City subway system is preparing to shut down if need be -- an unheard of precaution.

At 8 PM Thursday the storm was centered 535 miles south of Wilmington NC, considered one of its prime targets on Saturday. It was moving at only 14 miles an hour, far slower than most hurricanes.

Even though it is lingering over warm waters which should fuel its strength, its winds slowed down in the past few hours, now clocked at "maximum sustained" 115 miles an hour. This keeps Irene as a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, capable of "devastating" damage. Earlier Irene flirted with becoming Category 4, capable of "catastrophic" damage. This requires winds of 131 an hour; the maximum recorded was 126.

Forecasters still say Irene may achieve Category 4 status.

✔✔✔✔✔ The University evacuated its Marine Laboratory in the seaport of Beaufort, NC at noon on Thursday. But in Durham, there was minimal preparation. Generators were checked, procedures were reviewed. Upperclassmen previously scheduled to come in starting on Friday, were permitted into their rooms on Thursday, though hardly any knew this was the case. And all student events scheduled through the weekend are still on.

Here is the current official update. We warn our Loyal Readers that Duke keeps changing the URL when it posts new information, so if you check, this may or may not be the latest. A rather totally dumb way of doing it.

http://today.duke.edu/2011/08/irenecoast

✔✔✔✔✔DUKE PROF SAYS HEAVY STORM IS JUST WHAT OUTER BANKS NEED.

Whoa. This guy is in a majority of one!

This is no misquote. Here are the words of Orrin Pilkey, James B. Duke Professor emeritus of geology in the Nicholas School of the Environment: "The storm that is coming up the coast here is just what the islands need."

Wait a second. The Outer Banks -- the thin, long line of barrier islands jutting into the sea -- will take the brunt on Saturday. Property will be destroyed. Wildlife will drown. Salt spray from the waves will kill vegetation that lives on fresh water.

The professor: "We are going to see an awful lot of buildings destroyed and an awful lot of buildings damaged... And because it's so slow-moving, there are not only going to be high winds and big waves, but they are going to last a long time."

So where's the flip side, the good? Pilkey -- author of "A Celebration of the World's Barrier Islands," told the Los Angeles Times -- of all papers, one that is clear cross country -- that storms of this magnitude are essential to the islands' survival. "Heavy storms bring new sand to the islands, helping them stay at sea level rather than eroding and disappearing into the sea."

"It's a strange thing to live in a place where a natural disaster is essential for the environment. Californians who live in fire-prone areas are familiar with this dilemma. For people, fires are catastrophes, but some of us live in environments that depend on fire for survival...... A naturalist living on a barrier island knows that protecting your house is not a good thing. Because protecting your house ends up destroying the beach."

A FINAL NOTE ON BASKETBALL

Finally, on the flight home from Dubai, since the uber expensive charter for the team and fans was first announced, FC has made a point of saying you really did not get very much for your money if you went along. Some Loyal Readers challenged our assertion that the jet was narrow-bodied with seating 3 and 3, meaning you had a 33 percent chance of being in a middle seat. Well all of us were right; originally a 757 3-3 was scheduled. Then the plane was upgraded to a 767, which is 2-3-2. However, the 767 had a mechanical problem that kept it on the ground at Raleigh Durham, and 24 hours later, the 757 was substituted.

In describing the 757, FC said it had business class seats. This was wrong. The team members -- some approaching seven feet -- are wedged into a limited number of "premium economy" seats -- a little more leg room and a 2-2 configuration but still economy seats. This will also affect Coach K, whose contract gives him a private jet when he is not with the team.

Thanks for reading Fact Checker!

Duke's Global Health Institute: Noble idea, troubling execution. Exporting education programs with no faculty oversight

✔✔✔✔ The Duke Global Health Institute is a noble idea of the first order, a part of Duke University that's only five years old but truly can be said to be doing God's work on earth, and an enigma because its leadership is refusing to discuss with Fact Checker some very serious, emerging issues.

One of the key issues: whether academic programs -- including those leading to a Duke degree -- have been approved by the Institute faculty and the Academic Council as provided in the university by-laws, a process that insures viability and integrity and rigor. Our faculty source said no.

From one e-mail: "It's unbelievable. I just heard through the grapevine that global health is preparing to hire faculty to be full-time in Kunshan, and we regular faculty have not even voted on whether we want to pursue programs there! This endeavor will be a disaster."

We will return to this issue of governance, which may well come up in Friday's meeting of Global Health faculty, in a few moments. We begin the body of our essay by turning to the enigma.

✔✔ Our interest was piqued when a faculty member in the Institute who wishes to remain anonymous provided FC with some disturbing information which we will detail. After initial study and a multitude of questions for our source, we approached Dr. Michael Merson, the institute's director (who is also sitting in as the university's interim vice president for global strategy) via e-mail, laying out our concerns and requesting an interview. We told him that we not only wanted to gain his perspective on any controversy -- but welcomed his telling us about the Institute's good work.

We regret very much having to report to Loyal Readers that we were treated rudely: e-mail after e-mail and phone call after phone call, and Merson never responded. We finally informed him of our policy, and told him we would be writing about this failure, to no avail. We even set back the date for this essay, hoping that when Merson returned in mid-week from a trip he would speak to us. No dice.

✔✔ The Institute was founded in 2006 with seed money from Duke University and its separately incorporated and well financed Health System. The basic idea is simple:

"The 20th century was a century of spectacular medicine – and equally spectacular failures to distribute health and health care fairly across the globe."

"Our aim is to become a world-recognized authority in global health and to make significant contributions to the prevention and treatment of health problems, thereby reducing health disparities in vulnerable and underserved populations around the world."

The Institute has grown like wild-fire. Two years ago it had 60 students in its various academic programs. Last year it had 120, and in the semester about to start, the Institute expects far more.

It has 42 faculty -- with an amazing 10 searches underway for additional appointments. And that's not counting 48 faculty shared with other Duke divisions. (We believe the faculty totals are correct; we wish we could have confirmed them with Dr. Merson or with Duke PR which also ignored a request.)

The amount of money involved in the Institute is not revealed in its reports, but we know that since its inception, the number of grants has grown from 2 to 14 to 30 to 34 to 55.

✔✔ We told Dr. Merson that we were troubled by the financial pie graphic in his 2011 annual report, which shows substantial money flowing into administration and allied activities, at the expense of education, research and other field work.

Some specifics;

Finance and administration is swallowing 20 percent of the Institute's budget.

The top-heavy Office of the Director another 16 percent.

And PR -- identified as communications -- another 7 percent.

Total so far, 43 percent.

And in addition to allocations for education (28 percent) and research (19 percent) which goes on all over the world, we were curious about another 11 percent listed only as "international operations." Another administrative cost perhaps?

The Institute has 120 active global health research projects in 28 countries. Students ran 74 projects in 20 different countries. We wanted to know about the philosophy of operating thin in so many places -- versus an intensive, more thorough involvement in a few.

✔✔ And now the academic programs of the Institute. Here are the programs we have been able to discover:

"In fall 2010, DGHI welcomed 24 individuals from Uganda, India, Kenya, Nigeria and the United States into the second cohort of the Master of Science in Global Health. Also in 2010, DGHI celebrated the first two students ... to successfully defend their thesis and complete the program. The future of the program is equally bright, as DGHI received a record number of applications for the third cohort who will be welcomed in
fall 2011.

"The Duke Global Health Institute has launched its first program targeting Duke doctoral students interested in pursuing global health research in tandem with their primary discipline. Beginning in fall 2011, the Global Health Doctoral Scholars Program aims to foster dynamic intellectual exchange between Duke doctoral students and DGHI faculty.... The program, which requires a minimum commitment of nine months, enables students to work on a global health project with a DGHI faculty mentor, develop a global health dissertation and become involved in the DGHI’s growing community."

"DGHI is training the next generation of global health leaders, whether they are in Durham, Moshi, Beijing or elsewhere in the world. Education programs range in level and focus, from the popular undergraduate global health certificate to the training of medical professionals in Rwanda."

"Faculty from Duke, UNC-CH and NC State are working together within the Triangle Global Health Consortium on a new graduate course dedicated to the burgeoning
field of One Health."

✔ And most of all Kunshan.

As Loyal Readers know, the Fuqua Business School has taken the lead in putting forth large-scale degree granting programs in this Chinese backwater, with both proposals so far being shot down by the faculty on June 1. Presumably, although there is no confirmation, Fuqua's new dean Bill Boulding is consulting with his faculty about creating alternative proposals.

While Fuqua garnered the headlines, the Global Health Institute was also proposing a degree program for Kunshan.

Our faculty source: "As far as I know, the global health faculty has not formally approved any academic programs in Kunshan. Participation in Kunshan never came up for a formal faculty vote. No faculty committees have played a role in creating specific Kunshan programs, or reviewing them for rigor and content. As far as I can tell, the global health programs submitted to the Chinese government for Kunshan were developed mainly by a non-academic Associate Director of Education who lists no significant training in global health or higher education on the global health website."

A Fact Checker review of transcripts of the Academic Council meetings uncovered no discussion of the Global Health proposal, which must clear the Council before beginning.

Make no mistake. This is not a turf battle. Our faculty source again: "If Provost Lange approves this model of academic development and standards, I worry about the future of Duke and Kunshan. Universities can only be successful when faculty interests, initiatives, and leadership drive academic programs."

Or put another way in another e-mail: "It's (troubling) to me how the university announces Kunshan programs that have not been approved by professors and university committees. It's Fuqua all over again.

"At Global Health, it's really troubling since the non-academic staff seem to make so many academic program decisions and then present to the faculty for a quick rubber-stamping at meetings, or they make decisions that involve one or two male faculty members (people named, FC omits) who will support whatever the staff wants so that the Director can say that the decision was faculty-based.

'Any other segment of the university would have faculty setting the agenda, not staff who lack substantive academic qualifications in the subject area... The Global Health Institute does have named faculty directors of the undergraduate and graduate programs who just seem to carry out but not make decisions. If the Director involved more faculty, he would not need such a ridiculously large staff or have so much of the budget spent on administration."

✔✔ Beyond the questions surrounding degree granting programs, it is obvious that various divisions and schools at Duke are moving in new directions. Previously, one professor might travel to another country to teach for a semester or for a sabbatical. But now Duke is exporting entire academic programs -- like Fuqua's intent to operate a new business school for the government of Kazakhstan. The same is true of the Global Health Institute. All this has escaped any vote of approval by the Fuqua faculty, and most important, any Academic Council review because the degrees involved will not be from Duke.

Even so, our imprimatur is on the venture, our reputation at stake. The need for guidelines and oversight is acute.

✔✔ We also asked via e-mail Dr. Merson how much he is willing to bow to foreign governments. For example, the Institute recently awarded "diplomas" in Beijing; while we are unclear if this is the equivalent of a degree, the document bore the Duke name. We wondered if it also bore our seal, the motto "Eruditio and Religio" that is part of our heritage, and the Christian cross as well.

✔✔ We also sought to discuss with Merson his board of advisers. The chair is Thomas Gorrie, also a University Trustee and chair of the board of directors of the Duke Health System. FC has never been able to trace why Gorrie is interested in Duke at all. He's from New Jersey, a former executive at Johnson and Johnson, and a scientist. He is not an alumnus, neither is his wife nor son. He's very well hidden; it took us a long time to find his Princeton NJ office, where there is never any answer.

There Global Health board also includes two University Trustees who were bounced by term limits, and if we are not careful the Institute board will become the last gasp for power by people on their way out.

The two include Alan Schwartz, most famously CEO of the Wall Street giant Bear Stearns that disappeared in the financial meltdown.

And Robert King Steel, who has a long Duke resume. As chair of the Trustee search committee, he discovered Richard Brodhead who was Dean of Yale College. He stood at his side through the lacrosse crisis, abandoning our boys.

Steel came out of Goldman Sachs and was at the top of this Wall Street pig until bounced, and then his rabbi from Goldman made him the #1 federal Treasury official dealing with the domestic economy in the presidency of George W. Bush. Overnight, Steel flipped from regulator to CEO of one of the companies most in need of regulation, Charlotte's Wachovia Bank, which subsequently disappeared too.

Thank you for reading FC and for loving Duke.

Fuqua alum succeeds Steve Jobs as head of Apple

✔✔ Timothy D. Cook, a Fuqua MBA graduate '88, has been named Chief Executive Officer and a director of the world's most valuable tech company -- Apple.

This after Steve Jobs, a cancer survivor who has had a liver transplant, stepped down from the company he founded at age 21. "I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know," he wrote. "Unfortunately, that day has come."

The news stunned the tech world, but election of Cook, who has filled in for Jobs three times since 2004 when his health broke, was no surprise. Jobs was elected chair of the board, a part-time position that is considerably less demanding.

Cook: age 50. Undergraduate degree from Auburn. Huge Auburn football fan. Fitness fanatic, gym at 5 AM. Joined Apple in 1998 as senior vice president of world-wide operations. Previoiusly with IBM for 12 years and a brief stint at Compaq. Earnings last year: $59 million.

Wall Street Journal: "People who know him at Apple say he is polite but persistent and unyielding in his demands. They also say he can absorb a huge amount of data and quickly pinpoint any problems."

And this: "Mr. Cook isn't the showman that Mr. Jobs is, but people who know him call him an "operational genius" who was responsible for crafting Apple's current supply-chain system and helping to transform the company into one of the most efficient electronics manufacturers today."

Biggest challenge: having grown by leaps and bounds, the big challenge now is to sustain the momentum.