Apple executives

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Today in Apple history: Future Apple CEO John Sculley is born

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Fremont, California, 1990.
John Sculley in Fremont, California, 1990.
Photo: Doug Menuez/Fearless Genius

April 6: Today in Apple history: Apple CEO John Sculley born April 6, 1939: John Sculley is born in New York City. He will grow up to be hailed as a business and marketing genius, eventually overseeing Apple’s transformation into the most profitable personal computer company in the world.

After a remarkable stint as president of Pepsi-Cola, Sculley will take over as Apple’s third CEO in 1983. He runs Apple for a 10-year period, guiding the creation of the revolutionary Newton MessagePad.

During Sculley’s decade at the helm, Apple sells more personal computers than any other company. But most people still remember him for his role in kicking Steve Jobs out of Cupertino.

20-year veteran Apple VP of Engineering departs

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DJ Novotney, former Apple VP of Engineering, is headed off to EV-maker Rivian.
DJ Novotney, former Apple VP of Engineering, is headed off to EV-maker Rivian.
Photo: LinkedIn

DJ Novotney first started at Apple in June 1999, and now he’s been lured away by electric-car-maker Rivian.

Over his two decades  with the company, he helped design many iconic Apple products, including iPod, iPhone, iPad and more.

Today in Apple history: Tim Cook becomes Apple’s chief operating officer

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Tim Cook
Tim Cook was on his way to the top spot at Apple.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

October 14: Today in Apple history October 14, 2005: Tim Cook takes the reins as Apple’s chief operating officer, continuing an upward climb through the company’s ranks that will make him CEO less than six years later.

“Tim and I have worked together for over seven years now, and I am looking forward to working even more closely with him to help Apple reach some exciting goals during the coming years,” Steve Jobs says in a statement.

Today in Apple history: John Sculley steps down as Apple CEO

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Former Apple CEO John Sculley talks at Web Summit 2015 in Dublin, Ireland.
John Sculley ran Apple for a decade.
Photo: Web Summit/Flickr CC

June 18 Today in Apple history June 18, 1993: John Sculley steps down as Apple CEO after a 10-year run.

Sculley is asked to leave by the Apple board after AAPL shares collapse from a high of $4.33 in 1992 to 73 cents the following year. He hands over the CEO role to Michael Spindler before briefly taking the role of Apple chairman, prior to departing altogether.

Two key execs are leaving Apple

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Apple Store
The head of the online Apple Store is one of multiple executives leaving the company.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

The head of the online Apple store and its Chief Information Officer are reportedly both exiting the company.

This follows on the heels of news that Apple’s head of design is also on the way out.

Former Lamborghini exec will help steer Apple car design team

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Apple's new hire worked on this model, a Lamborghini Huracan.
Apple's new hire worked on this model, a Lamborghini Huracan.
Photo: Lamborghini

A former Lamborghini executive recently joined Apple to lead design of the company’s long-rumored self-driving car, according to a new report Wednesday.

As Apple works toward releasing an electric vehicle before the end of this decade, the addition of Luigi Taraborrelli, who worked for the fabled Italian automaker for 20 years, could accelerate the project.

Tim Cook netted a cool $265 million from Apple in 2020

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Tim Cook earnings apple
Tim Cook is in 8th place on Bloomberg‘s list of highest paid CEOs and executives.
Illustration: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple CEO Tim Cook is one of the best paid U.S. executives according to a new report. He pulled in a whopping $265 million in 2020 from his salary, bonus, and stock awards.

But that’s chump change compared to what Elon Musk made.

Apple finally makes crucial hire: communications chief

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is now in charge of Apple corporate communications
Stella Low has been picked to lead Apple’s public relations efforts .
Photo: Cisco

Stella Low is stepping into a position at Apple that’s been empty for years. She’s been named vice president of worldwide corporate communications. That puts her in charge of Apple’s public relations efforts.

She left Cisco to take the job with Apple.

Apple VP of developer relations retires as the role gets more challenging

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Developer relations is getting more complex
The App Store is critical to Apple, and that makes developer relations an important role.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Ron Okamoto quietly retired after two decades as Apple’s vice president of Developer Relations. He helped oversee the tools provided to third-party iPhone and Mac application developers, and helped set policies for the App Store.

His retirement comes as governments around the world are investigating whether Apple treats fairly the third-party developers who depend on the iPhone and Mac App Stores.

Key employee exits Apple’s secret car project

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Benjamin Lyon‘s dream led him from Apple Car to outer space.
A long-time Apple engineer and manager left the Apple Car project to work on space tech.
Photo: Mihai Paraschiv/Pixabay CC

Benjamin Lyon left Apple after being with the company for 21 years. He worked on a variety of products, but most recently he’d been a senior director in the team working on the Apple Car.

But he’s going to go be a rocket engineer instead.

Apple developing mystery health hardware products

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Probably not the Apple health hardware products in development.
Probably not this.
Screenshot: NBCUniversal

A job posting leaves no room for doubt that Apple plans more health-related devices. The company seeks to hire a project manager to develop “Apple-branded Health Hardware products.”

The company doesn’t have anything like this now. It’s instead mostly concentrated on building wellness features into Apple Watch, iPhone and AirPods. And selling third-party health devices.

As Tim Cook nears a decade at the helm, Apple focuses on who’ll take over

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Tim Cook WWDC
Who will be Apple's next CEO?
Photo: Apple

Much of Apple’s senior team, including 59-year-old CEO Tim Cook, are of a similar age. That means they’re probably not going to be in their roles for too many more years.

As Cook approaches a decade at the helm of Apple, a Friday report from Bloomberg claims that he and his team are “increasingly focused” on succession planning. That means cultivating its “next class of top managers” who could take the helm of the world’s most valuable company.

Phil Schiller’s new role as Apple Fellow means big promotion for Joz

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Phil Schiller
Schiller has guided Apple's marketing efforts for more than 30 years.
Photo: Apple

Apple on Tuesday said that Phil Schiller, the company’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, will move on to become an Apple Fellow.

Schiller continues to report directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook in his new position, which involves leading the App Store and Apple Events. Greg “Joz” Joswiak takes up Schiller’s previous role.

Christie Smith, Apple’s VP of inclusion and diversity, leaves the company

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diversity Apple
Diversity is one of Apple's biggest strengths, says Tim Cook.
Photo: Apple

Christie Smith, Apple’s vice president of inclusion and diversity, has left the company after two-and-a-half years in the role. Smith worked under Apple’s SVP of Retail and People Deirdre O’Brien.

Smith’s departure was reported by Bloomberg and confirmed by Apple. Her departure had been planned for a couple of months, but Tuesday was her last day.

Buy the California home of a former Apple CEO for just … $37.5 million

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Former Apple CEO Mike Markkula's Rana Creek Ranch in Carmel Valley is up for sale. What better purchase to show off your Apple fan credentials?
What better purchase to show off your Apple fan credentials?
Photo: Hall and Hall

Want to own the home of a former Apple CEO? Wouldn’t we all? Unfortunately, you’ll need to pony up $37.5 million to do so.

Belonging to Mike Markkula, the angel investor who played a critical role in Apple’s early days, the ranch is the largest single landholding in Central California’s Carmel Valley. Markkula reportedly purchased it in 1982 for $8 million. He’s been trying to sell it since at least 2013 — and has dropped the price substantially during that time.

A video by the listing agency, Hall and Hall, lets you take a look around.

Head of Apple News+ leaves after lackluster start

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Liz Schimel was Apple’s Head of News Business.
Liz Schimel handled the business side of Apple News+, but apparently not any more.
Photo: Condé Nast

Liz Schimel joined Apple’s news division in 2018, and was on board during the launch of News+. But the subscription service hasn’t seen much success, and now Schimel has left the company according to a published report on Tuesday.

Apple TV+ poaches streaming video expert from Netflix

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Apple TV+ has a growing amount of content
Apple nabbed a Netflix high-level engineer with years of experience.
Photo: Apple

Ruslan Meshenberg made the jump to Apple TV+ after leaving Netflix, a top rival of Apple’s new streaming service. As the former VP of Productivity Engineering, he brings years of experience to a platform that’s still getting off the ground.

Profile focuses on Apple’s cutthroat buying practices and ‘The Blevinator’

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A new profile of Apple purchasing executive Tony Blevins gives an inside perspective on the company's tough negotiating tactics.
A new profile of Apple purchasing executive Tony Blevins gives an inside perspective on the company's tough negotiating tactics.
Photo: North Carolina State University

In a feature piece based largely on background sources, The Wall Street Journal on Thursday profiled Tony Blevins, Apple’s vice president of procurement, giving a unique insight into the dog-eat-dog business of buying components from third-party suppliers for Apple products.

Ex head of iPhone processors founds chip-design company

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Apple sues former chief architect of iPhone chips
Apple is suing its former chip engineer, center, for breach of contract.
Photo: Nuvia

You may never have heard of Gerard Williams III, but for years he played a large part in designing every iPhone processor. He left Apple early this year, and is now the CEO of Nuvia, a firm headed by three ex Apple execs that’s designing its own chips.

But they aren’t taking on their old company. Instead, Nuvia will make processors for data centers.

Apple hires another top cardiologist to boost health initiatives

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Apple health care
Apple Watch’s heart-monitoring capabilities could see future improvements thanks to prominent cardiologists hired by Apple.
Photo: Lewis Wallace/Cult of Mac

Dr. David Tsay recently joined Apple, apparently to bring new features to devices like the Apple Watch that monitor the wearer’s heart. He’s an expert in the field, and also just left a position as Associate Chief Transformation Officer for NewYork-Presbyterian Innovation Center.

This is the second prominent cardiologist brought onboard in two years.

Apple TV+ pursues lofty goal: Exploring human relationships

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Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, Apple’s two heads of worldwide video programming
Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht got the tough job of building Apple TV+ from nothing.
Photo: Apple

The first slate of Apple TV+ shows would seem to have little in common — they range from a teen comedy to a sci-fi epic — but the company’s top entertainment programming execs say they are all about relationships.

They also worked hard to make this new streaming service fit with the rest of Apple.

Jony Ive’s successor could someday replace Tim Cook at Apple’s helm

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Apple COO Jeff Williams
Williams is next in line for the CEO’s office.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s COO Jeff Williams won’t take on the departing Jony Ive’s title of Chief Design Officer but he’s nevertheless stepping into the role.

A new profile in The Wall Street Journal quotes sources who question whether Williams has the vision to take Ive’s place. Even so, some are looking at this executive to someday replace CEO Tim Cook.

VP helping lead the charge for a 5G iPhone departs company

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2020 could be Apple's greatest year so far
A veteran Apple VP who was a big proponent for a 5G iPhone is leaving.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

The Apple vice president in charge of sourcing 4G and 5G iPhone modems has left. The departure of Rubén Caballero comes as this part of Apple’s business is in transition, with Qualcomm once again available to provide these vital components.

It seems developing a 5G iPhone is going to continue to be more difficult than one might expect.