When you run the biggest company in the world, and you’ve done it rather successfully for the past five years, I imagine you have a fair amount of folks ringing you up asking for advice.

Sometimes even the world’s most high-profile CEO needs a little word of reassurance though, or maybe a nudge in the right direction, so he has a list of confidantes he calls on for a guiding hand.

Of course they’re not the man or woman off the street, so here’s Mashable with the five people he has on speed dial:

Warren Buffet

“When I was going through [the question of] what should we do on returning cash to shareholders, I thought who could really give us great advice here,” he said. “Who wouldn’t have a bias? So I called up Warren Buffett. I thought he’s the natural person, and so I try to go through that process on everyone.” “That doesn’t mean I always do what they say,” he added.

Anderson Cooper

The CNN anchor may seem like a surprising confidante, but Cook said he spoke with him before making one of his most personal decisions: the op-ed he wrote in 2014 declaring “I’m proud to be gay.” Cook said he went to Cooper because he admired how the anchor handled his own decision to come out publicly in 2012.

Bill Clinton

In 2013, Cook was facing his first Congressional testimony (he was called to testify about Apple’s tax practices). He said he consulted with a number of people before the hearing, including the 42nd president himself, who he met through the Clinton Foundation.

“He knows a lot about the politics,” Cook said of Clinton. “I’d not met him through a political connection. I’d met him through the foundation.”

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein

It was the same hearing that prompted Cook to reach out to another prominent business figure — Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs.

“I looked back to say who’s done this before? I knew Lloyd and thought he’d be honest with me,” Cook said.

Laurene Powell Jobs

Steve Jobs’ widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, also counseled Cook prior to his Congressional testimony. Cook, who elsewhere in the interview called the day of Steve Job’s death “the worst day ever,” noted that she has a unique understanding of the company and Cook himself.

“Laurene has the lens of knowing me and deeply understanding Apple.”

That’s a pretty impressive list, but I think we all knew it would be.

[source:mashable]