A Blue Devil is taking charge at Apple.

Tim Cook, the technology company's new CEO, earned an MBA from Duke University in 1988 and was a Fuqua scholar.

Sports fans take note: The Alabama native also has an engineering degree from Auburn University, and his loyalties reportedly are tied mostly to the Tigers.

Apple announced late Wednesday that Cook, 50, has replaced its iconic CEO Steve Jobs, who has battled health issues for years. Cook became acting CEO in January, and has overseen day-to-day operations since 2007 when he was promoted to chief operating officer.

Cook also has ties to Big Blue. He joined Apple in 1998 from Compaq Computer, but had previously spent 12 years at IBM, mostly at that company's massive campus in Research Triangle Park.

Duke University's Fuqua School of Business has tapped deputy dean William Boulding, right, to be its new top executive for the next two years.

Boulding replaces Blair Sheppard, who has served as Fuqua's dean since 2007. Sheppard will step down Aug. 1 to oversee fundraising and business development for Duke Kunshan University, the school's massive new campus in China, which is scheduled to open in Fall 2012.

Sheppard will continue to teach in Fuqua’s Global Executive MBA program and to serve as chairman of Duke CE, the corporate education venture he created and led as CEO for seven years before his appointment as dean.

Another survey of corporate financial chiefs reinforces what's becoming a common refrain: The economic recovery is getting shakier.

CFOs' optimism has dropped, dampened by high energy prices, the ongoing housing slump and other factors. That's also reduced expectations for hiring, according to a quarterly survey of 806 chief financial officers by Duke University and CFO Magazine.

Fears of slower growth have rattled world financial markets in recent days, and on Tuesday Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bnernake said that the U.S. recovery is "frustratingly slow."

Each year, MBA students at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business offer consulting to select small businesses and non-profits in the Triangle.

The cost is minimal — a $200 administrative fee and your time. To be considered a business or nonprofit must meet the following criteria:

- Be in business for at least one year
- Be within a one-hour drive of Duke
- Have revenues exceeding $100,000 for the past business year
- Be willing to provide at least two year's worth of financial data and operational data
- Have executives available to meet with their student team a minimum of five times between October and April.

Students deliver an oral and written presentation to their client at the end of the project. Their progress is overseen by Fuqua Professor of Strategy William Sax.

Every student signs a letter of confidential before the work begins.

The deadline for applications is Aug. 31. To get an application and more information, contact Beverly James at 660-7789 or e-mail texas@duke.edu or go to the Fuqua web site here.

Getting a degree from the best B-schools pays off.

That's the main message from a Bloomberg Businessweek report exploring how much graduates from the top 45 business schools stand to earn over their careers.

Duke University's Fuqua school was No. 12 on this year's list, down from No. 10 last year. A Duke MBA can expect to make $2.86 million.  

UNC-Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler came in No. 17, up from No. 22, with $2.61 million in estimated career pay.

Harvard Business School is the most expensive full-time MBA program, with tuition and required fees of more than $106,000 for two years. But the payoff is estimated career pay of $3.87 million, putting it at the top of the list compiled by PayScale.

A business professor at Duke has snared a one-year appointment in the Obama White House.

Ronnie Chatterji, an assistant professor of strategy with the Fuqua School of Business, was appointed a senior economist with Obama's Council of Economic Advisers.

The council gives the president objective economic advice that helps formulate domestic and international economic policy.

Chatterji has taken a one-year leave from Duke in order to take on the new assignment.

Duke University has announced a plan to offer business and policy education programs in Dubai.

The new programs will operate through agreements with two Dubai institutions - the Centre of Excellence at the Dubai International Finance Centre, and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Programme for Leadership Development.

Duke will establish a campus at the DIFC Centre of Excellence, providing "a platform for global educational institutions to provide a range of executive and professional education programs to students in the region," according to a Duke press release.

Several programs within Duke's Fuqua School of Business will operate there, including the Duke MBA - Cross Continent, the Duke MBA - Global Executive, the Advanced Management Program and the Global Leadership Program.

Fuqua will offer degree and non-degree programs.

The Dubai initiative is one step in a plan the university announced last year to expand operations in Dubai, London, New Delhi, St. Petersburg and Shanghai.

Duke's business school is offering a new master's program intended to provide entry-level business skills to recent college graduates.

The first class of students in the Master of Management Studies in Foundations of Business program starts in August.

It will consist of 12 courses taught over four, six-week terms. They will focus on business fundamentals - finance, accounting, marketing, strategy, operations, decision analysis and management, according to a Duke press release.

All will be taught by faculty at Duke's Fuqua School of Business.

The program will require no previous career or business experience, but enrollees will need a basic understanding of calculus, statistics and computer skills.

Check the school's website for more info.