Tim-Cook-AmsterdamApple CEO Tim Cook has been named as one of several tech industry executives that will speak at Startup Fest Europe, a festival geared towards helping startups grow faster, according to the event website.

Tim Cook (Apple) and Travis Kalanick (Uber) have accepted their invitation to come to the Netherlands with great enthusiasm. Neelie Kroes (special envoy StartupDelta) personally invited Cook and Kalanick during her visit to San Francisco together with Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

Cook is scheduled to speak on Tuesday, May 24 at 11:10 a.m. local time for approximately 35 minutes. The topic of the discussion has not been revealed, but Cook will likely reflect on his CEO role and operational background at Apple since joining the company in 1998.

Other international keynote speakers scheduled to speak on May 24 include Alphabet chairman Eric Schmidt, Airbnb co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk, Uber co-founder/CEO Travis Kalanick, Seedcamp co-founder Reshma Sohoni, Adyen co-founder Pieter van der Does, Elastic co-founder/CEO Steven Schuurman, Booking.com COO Gillian Tans, The Netherlands P.M. Mark Rutte, European Commission VP Andrus Ansip, and Atomico partner Mattias Ljungman.

Cook has maintained a busy agenda this month, starting with appearances on CNBC's Mad Money and at Met Gala 2016 on Monday. He will also reportedly visit Beijing later in May to meet with high-level Chinese government officials as Apple looks to counter a series of recent setbacks in the country. Meanwhile, a recent charity auction for a one-hour lunch date with Cook raised more than $500,000 for the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. The lunch will take place by May 5, 2017.

Startup Fest Europe takes place between May 24-28 in Amsterdam.

(Thanks, Maarten!)

Top Rated Comments

ArtOfWarfare Avatar
124 months ago
What part of Tim Cook's resume makes it seem like he's a good fit for being the keynote speaker of a startup event?

1978-1982: BS in Industrial Engineering from Auburn University
1982-1986: IBM
1986-1988: MBA from Duke
1988-1996: More IBM (Ultimately rose to director of NA PC fulfillment)
1996-1998: Compaq (Ultimately rose to VP of Corporate Supplies)
1998-?: Apple (Ultimately rose to CEO)

It seems to me that all of these positions are great for giving you experience in managing large, established companies...

None of it gives you experience in managing a startup, securing financing, getting an audience, hiring your initial team, not running out of money, and ultimately how to transfer from being a wobbly startup to being an established company.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like how you should properly manage one is not how you should properly manage the other.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Arran Avatar
124 months ago
That cover reminds me of a horror movie from the 80s "starring Tim Cook as Freddy Krueger"
Reminds me of:

tim cook keynote speaker startup fest europe image
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bushido Avatar
124 months ago
Two of the dullest Keynote speakers of our time. Tim is great behind the scenes but is abysmal as a public speaker. He has the charisma of a white wall drying in a white room.
haha i have to agree. the way he talks is torture to my ears.

"toniiiiiiiiiight we are going to show youuuuuuu incredible things we have been working oooooooon"
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tw1ll Avatar
124 months ago
Blah, blah, blah.....just like Ive recently spent time at some design-fest for the idle rich, here's the CEO mouthing off at some conference. Stay home and fix the company - declining software quality, no innovations that are big enough to move the stock price, comical product launches (although that one is quite good because it always makes me laugh out loud how good they have become at self parody....I swear they must be running a sweepstake in the boardroom as to how long they can keep the " oooh, Ive has made it another micron thinner" gag going. Or at least it would be funny if they wern't pocketing so much of the shareholders profits for themselves).
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mdriftmeyer Avatar
124 months ago
Two of the dullest Keynote speakers of our time. Tim is great behind the scenes but is abysmal as a public speaker. He has the charisma of a white wall drying in a white room.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jonnysods Avatar
124 months ago
New watch bands!
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iOS 26 Battery Glass Feature

iOS 26.1 Beta Liquid Glass Battery Drain Test: Tinted vs Clear Mode

Friday October 24, 2025 2:30 pm PDT by
In the fourth iOS 26.1 beta, Apple added a "Tinted" option that reduces the translucency of Liquid Glass for those who prefer a more opaque look. I saw some comments wondering whether the setting might preserve battery life, so I thought I'd do some testing. Test Settings I did four separate tests using the iPhone 17 Pro Max, and I kept the parameters as similar as possible. Here are the...
iOS 26 Maps Glass

Apple Reportedly Moving Ahead With Ads in Maps App

Sunday October 26, 2025 6:22 am PDT by
Apple Maps could feature integrated ads as soon as next year, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. In his latest "Power On" newsletter, Gurman said that Apple's plan to bring more ads to iOS is moving "gaining traction," with the Maps app being next in line. The project will apparently give restaurants and other businesses the option to pay to have their details featured more prominently in...
iOS 26

iOS 26.1 Coming Soon With These 8 New Features for Your iPhone

Wednesday October 22, 2025 6:15 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a handful of new features and changes for iPhones, including a toggle for changing the appearance of the Liquid Glass design, "slide to stop" for alarms in the Clock app, and more. iOS 26.1 is currently in beta testing. The update will likely be released in the first half of November, and it is compatible with the iPhone 11 series and newer, but some...
iOS 26

iOS 26.1 Coming Soon: New Features for Your iPhone and Release Date

Monday October 27, 2025 7:55 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a handful of new features and changes for iPhones, including a toggle for changing the appearance of the Liquid Glass design, "slide to stop" for alarms in the Clock app, and more. Below, we outline key details about iOS 26.1. Release Date Given that Apple has yet to seed an iOS 26.1 Release Candidate, which is typically the final beta version, the...
iPhone 17 Colors

iPhone 18 Rumored to Feature 50% More RAM

Saturday October 25, 2025 2:57 am PDT by
Apple's upcoming iPhone 18 could feature 50% more memory than its predecessor, according to Korea's The Bell. With its latest iPhone lineup, the iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max feature 12GB of memory. This is a significant increase of 4GB more their predecessors, largely driven by the demands of on-device artificial intelligence processing. The iPhone 17 is the only new...
M6 MacBook Pro Feature 1

M6 MacBook Pro: Release Date, Pricing, and What to Expect

Monday October 27, 2025 9:15 am PDT by
Apple this month refreshed the 14-inch MacBook Pro base model with its new M5 chip, and higher-end 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips are expected to follow in early 2026. However, these machines will represent the final update to the current design, with Apple reportedly developing a completely new version of the MacBook Pro packed with next-generation hardware...
maxresdefault

Apple TV 4K Could Still Launch Before 2025 Ends: All the Rumored Features

Monday October 27, 2025 12:51 pm PDT by
Apple is designing an updated version of the Apple TV 4K, and rumors suggest that it could come out sometime in the next couple of months. We're not expecting a major overhaul with design changes, but even a simple chip upgrade will bring major improvements to Apple's set-top box. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. We've rounded up all the latest Apple TV rumors. ...
swift for android

Developers Can Now Make Android Apps With Apple's Swift

Sunday October 26, 2025 4:23 am PDT by
The first preview release of the Swift SDK for Android was published this week, allowing developers to build Android apps in Swift with official tooling and making it easier to share code across iOS and Android. The SDK enables Android apps to be built in Swift using officially supported tooling rather than community workarounds. In June, it was announced that Apple's Swift programming...
Emergency SOS via Satellite iPhone YT

iPhone 18 Pro Rumored to Support Full 5G Satellite Internet

Friday October 24, 2025 7:18 am PDT by
At least some new iPhone models launching next year may support full 5G satellite internet, according to a report this week from The Information. "Apple plans to add support in upcoming iPhones as early as next year for 5G networks that aren't tethered to Earth's surface, which includes satellites," the report said. "That would give the iPhone full internet access over satellite," it added. ...