John Herbold, whose last post at Apple was Senior Product Manager of iCloud, has left the company to work in an education startup.
Herbold’s departure, spotted by the eagle eyes over at 9to5Mac, first showed up on his Linkedin Profile.
It’s not super-secret though — just that not that many people would’ve thought to check out healthteacher.com for a press release.
Here’s what his new company has to say about what Herbold did at Apple:
“Most recently at Apple, John played a key role in the creation, development and launch of iCloud and led the development and marketing of Photo Stream. Prior to launching iCloud, John was a Senior Product Manager on Apple’s MobileMe team. While at Apple, John defined, shipped and marketed numerous products including iPhone and iPad apps, web apps and cloud services.”
At his new gig, he’ll be “applying his experience developing world-class interactive products, John will lead our efforts to broaden digital engagement with kids, their families and their teachers, all focused on measurably improving youth health.”
Herbold is the latest departure from Apple after Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s SVP of Mac Software, and Ron Johnson, former head of Retail Stores.
Nicole Martinelli is a San Francisco freelance writer who heads up Cult of Mac Magazine, our weekly publication available on iTunes. You can find her on Twitter and Google+. If you’re doing something new, cool and Apple-related, email her.
22 responses to “Apple iCloud Product Manager Bolts”
I am wondering if perhaps there is more to all of this…I am wondering if these high up execs know something we dont right now. Possible regime change on the horizon or something, and they are securing new jobs before someone pops in and does a reshuffle. Hope not though :(
Just thinking out loud. I am well aware it is possible to look wayyyy too much into everything.
Possible. Cook is set to replace Jobs. Jobs isn’t getting any younger and doesn’t look to be getting healthier. Hopefully the company can weather the storm and the media backlash.
When you interviewed him about his sudden and abrupt departure, without any warning to Apple, did he give an explanation?
Or do you not know what the word “bolt” means?
Groundless speculation: after MobileMe was such an unmitigated flop, I’m thinking someone who was a “Senior Product Manager” was stigmatized by that, and probably spent the last year with the Sword of Damocles lurking behind every door and every phone call. It wasn’t New Coke, but it certainly wasn’t up to Jobs’ expectations. I’ll bet many of the leaders of that group are damaged goods and looking for a new “opportunity.”
I’m always curious about people who leave high power positions to develop software for the eductional market, especially K-12. Talk about a market that wants “miracles, yesterday for free.”
Products that educate young people about health. Woo hoo. That’s gonna be exciting.
Wow – I guess with his departure (and some other Apple execs) that we can assume Apple is in trouble. They are aren’t they? I mean, that is what it means when a senior exec leaves a company, yes?
Is that not what we assume when we hear about people leaving RIM?
It would be nice if the media would not overblow the whole “Steve Jobs is gone” armageddon scenario..
but after the way that RIM has been ripped up, down and all around by media and analysts, scaring the stock down to a bit over 4*eps , I would not count on it.
Apple never comes out with a product that flops
iCloud launched June 6. It’s June 21. That’s 15 days. In under about weeks from “miraculous” product launch to new job (signed, ink dry, press release) that’s *bolting.*
His loss…