14 DAY TRIAL // Bloomberg reports that Jerome York, an Apple director, has been hospitalized in critical condition. His wife, Eilene York, reportedly called an ambulance on Tuesday night after the 71-year-old man collapsed in his home, in Rochester, Michigan, due to a severe cerebral hemorrhage. The doctors at the Pontiac Osteopathic Hospital are now monitoring his medical state.
A West Point graduate, with an MBA at the University of Michigan and a Master’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, York spent most of his career in the automobile industry before becoming an Apple leading director, Bloomberg informs.
Jerome York joined Apple in 1997, after being the Chief Financial Officer at the International Business Machines Corp. and Chrysler Corporation. He worked in Chrysler’s financial department in the early 1980s and witnessed the ups and downs of the company and also the automobile maker’s struggle with bankruptcy, according to Bloomberg.
Chrysler Corp. and 24 of its subsidiaries filed a petition regarding bankruptcy on April 30, 2009. It is known that the filing with the U.S. Federal Bankruptcy court in New York City occurred upon the failure of the company to settle an agreement with its creditors for an outside-of-bankruptcy restructuring plan.
“Jerry had the guts and brains to identify the needed changes at many of America’s greatest companies, including Chrysler, IBM, General Motors and Apple, helping them to reach their greater potential,” Steve Miller, a director of UAL Corp. who used to work with York at Chrysler, said.
His resume also includes other strategic positions, such as those of Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at IBM. In 1993, he was headhunted by Louis Gerstner, the then IBM CEO. York also was a part of the leading board in General Motors Corp, for nine months, in 1996. Bloomberg notes that York had been a close counselor of Kirk Kerkorian, the Tracinda Corporation CEO, when the company purchased a 9.9-percent stake and looked for a tie-up between Renault SA and Nissan Motor Co.