Apple's Tim Cook ranks highest-paid chief executive in the U.S.

Apple is the world’s most valuable company, but it’s also a great place to work. For the top management, that translates in huge salaries, and the latest CNBC study shows that the highest paid CEO in the country is Apple’s Tim Cook.

Interestingly, the top three highest paid chief executives all have some ties to Apple. The second highest paid CEO, Larry Ellison of Oracle, was a close friend of Steve Jobs, and the number three Ron Jonson of JC Penney is the former head of Apple retail.

It is no surprise that the top three all consists of technology chief executives. But while you have the usual suspects, some surprises can be found as for example outfitters from Abercrombie & Fitch have one of the highest paid CEOs.

And as for Tim Cook, most of you already know that he has been with Apple since 1998, and slowly climbed up the ladder. He probably got noticed by Jobs due to his ability to organize Apple logistics to ship a product on time in the right quantities, something that Apple takes pride in today as well.