As Apple hoses down overheating problems with their new iPhones it’s been revealed that senior executives are quitting the Company which observers claim is a serious “brain drain” of experienced executives with the business set to be run by a new team as the business struggles to develop new products.
According to observers the real talent at Apple is at the Vice President level and while Tim Cook is the CEO it is this level of executive who is the key decision makers at Apple and that’s where the exodus is taking place.
Consisting of approximately 100 executives, the VP ranks have seen several people quit or simply leave.
Several cited the stress of the job, others retired while some were impacted by Apple’s share price.
Recently there were more people elevated to the VP level than you normally see at this time of the year.
Bloomberg reports that Apple promoted Tracey Hannelly to vice president of retail engagement and marketing. Karen Rasmussen became VP of online retail, and Vanessa Trigub took that role for retail operations. All three women continue to report to retail chief Deirdre O’Brien.
Several senior hardware executives have also quit Apple.
Yannick Bertolus, a vice president of hardware engineering, has retired.
He reported directly to hardware chief John Ternus, as well as Ternus’ predecessor, Dan Riccio. For over a decade, Bertolus was in charge of product quality and testing but was shifted last year to a role as the company’s top hardware product manager. The person who previously held that job, Laura Legros, left at the end of 2022. Donny Nordhues, a 17-year company veteran, is taking over for Bertolus.
In software engineering, Apple has promoted Jeremy Sandmel and David Biderman to the vice president level, reporting to Senior Vice President Craig Federighi.
Sandmel is in charge of graphics software, while Biderman runs the company’s division for audio and media software technologies.
In Johny Srouji’s hardware technologies group, Harry Guo was promoted to VP of video engineering, reporting to Myra Haggerty, a longtime executive under Srouji. Guo is in charge of software for video drivers and Face ID, as well as artificial intelligence teams that are working to convert standard video into 3D for the Vision Pro.
Within Apple’s operations organization — reporting to Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams — product operations manager Rob Hardy and manufacturing design executive Vashist Vasanthakumar were both elevated. Hardy reports to product operations chief Priya Balasubramaniam, while Vasanthakumar is under Rob York, who runs manufacturing for device enclosures.
