Apple Elects Levinson as its Second Chairman Post-Jobs

Apple elected Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson as its second Chairman, following the Oct. 5 death of Steve Jobs.

The company also elected Walt Disney CEO Robert Iger as a director. Jobs, 56, had been a Disney director as well as its largest individual shareholder.

Art has made enormous contributions to Apple since he joined the board in 2000, CEO Tim Cook said. His insight and leadership are incredibly valuable to Apple.

Levinson, 61, who holds a doctorate in microbiology from Princeton, won't serve as an executive chairman of the Cupertino, Calif.-based technology company. Instead he will function as an outsider, as most large companies have now split the functions of Chairman and CEO to assure better governance.

Under Levinson's guidance, Genentech, based in South San Francisco, became one of the world's foremost biotech concerns before it was acquired by Switzerland's Roche Holdings, starting in 1999 and taking complete control in 2009..

Iger, 60, has been Disney CEO since 2005. In 2006, Disney acquired Jobs's company, Pixar, for $7.4 billion in an all-stock deal that made the Apple co-founder its biggest individual shareholder. He elected Chairman of Santa Monica, Calif.-based Disney last month.

Apple, founded in 1976, never had a chairman until August, when Jobs quit as CEO and assumed the new title.

Other technology companies have different policies on splitting the role of CEO and Chairman. AT IBM, Samuel Palmisano currently holds both titles but will cede the CEO slot to Virgina Rometty on Jan. 1. At Hewlett-Packard, former Oracle president Ray Lane functions as Executive Chairman with new CEO Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay.

At Intel, CEO Paul Otellini reports to Chairman Jane Shaw, a retired CEO of Aerogen; at Microsoft, CEO Steve Ballmer reports to Chairman Bill Gates and at Texas Instruments, Richard Templeton continues as both Chairman and CEO.

Apple shares traded around $387.98 in early trading.