Apple CEO Tim Cook among 8 finalists for Time's Person of the Year

Apple CEO Tim Cook, who dazzled the industry with new iPhones and iPads and showed strength by becoming the first Fortune 500 CEO to publicly announce he is gay, has made Time magazine's short list for Person of the Year for 2014.

Cook, who filled Steve Jobs' big shoes in 2011, has a shot at winning an honor from Time that Jobs never won. The very well compensated Cook was also a finalist in 2012.

MORE:Watch video of the first iPhone 6...being dropped

The Apple CEO has had a busy and headline-making year, from dealing with iCloud celebrity hacking incidents to partnering with IBM to introducing Apple Pay and Apple Watch to having an anti-discrimination bill in his native state of Alabama named after him.

Cook wouldn't be the first tech industry personality to win, if he does top the likes of singer Taylor Swift, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Ebola caregivers. Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg was named Person of the year in 2010, Amazon chief Jeff Bezos won in 1999, Intel's Andy Grove won in 1997 and the computer itself won in 1982.

Keeping Cook company on this year's short list from the technology field is Jack Ma, CEO of Chinese e-comm giant Alibaba.

Rounding out the top 8 are the Ferguson protesters, acting President of the Iraqi Kurdish Region Masoud Barzani and Roger Goodell, commissioner of the National Football League.

The winner will be named on Wednesday, Dec. 10.