Jerome York, an Apple Inc. board member and a financial wizard credited with turning around Chrysler and IBM, died Thursday of a brain aneurysm. He was 71.
He died at a Pontiac, Mich., hospital after being taken there on Tuesday night.
York, who led an investigation of Apple’s stock option practices, was a pillar of financial and business expertise, Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs said. Jobs said York joined Apple’s board in 1997 when most people doubted the company’s future; since then, the company has launched such highly successful products as the iPhone and the iPod.
“It’s been a privilege to know and work with Jerry, and I’m going to miss him a lot,” Jobs said in a statement.
York worked for all three Detroit automakers starting in the 1960s. More recently, he advised investor Kirk Kerkorian in a failed takeover attempt of Chrysler and in efforts to reform General Motors Co. In 2006, three years before GM went into bankruptcy protection, York warned the company that its business model was seriously flawed.
As Chrysler’s chief financial officer from 1990 to 1993, York helped restore the No. 3 automaker to profitability with cost cuts and asset sales and was considered a potential successor to then-chairman Lee Iacocca.
Despite the cuts, York kept investing in new vehicle development, said Bud Liebler, vice president of marketing and public relations at Chrysler from 1980 to 2001. At one point, York ran the Dodge brand, where he upgraded the engine of the Ram truck to make it more powerful and gave the truck more aggressive looks, a wildly popular move.
“He wouldn’t cut costs that were going to help you build your business. He would cut superfluous costs,” Liebler said.
York thrived on stressful situations, Liebler said.
“He attacked them all with the same relish and vigor. It was about controlling the costs,”…