In yet more top-level Apple news, Chief Operating Officer (COO) Jeff Williams plans to step down pending his retirement later this yr. As expected, he will probably be replaced by existing Senior Vice President of Operations Sabih Khan.
The move solid shockwaves across the Apple-watching industry as Williams was widely expected to eventually replace Tim Cook as Apple CEO. The news doesn’t appear to have shocked Apple, nevertheless, which describes the retirement as a part of a long-planned succession.
Supply and demand
The news continues to be significant, given the extent to which the corporate is embroiled in problems across its supply chain — principally from a US government committed to using blunt instruments in the shape of tariffs to impact its business.
Khan, who evidently helped drive Apple’s ongoing transition to internationalize its supply chain, takes a high-pressure position through which he must find some approach to balance US nationalistic demands against the grim realities of the technology supply chain. Managing this accurately is of major importance to Apple.
To ensure Khan can deal with that task, Apple has modified among the responsibilities he’ll face in his role. Along together with his COO responsibilities, Williams also oversaw Apple’s design team, Apple Watch, and health initiatives. But that oversight is being shared elsewhere across the corporate’s top team, leaving Khan free to get business done. (The Apple design team — which currently reports to Williams — will report on to Cook starting later this yr, for instance.)
What Apple said
Williams has been Cook’s right-hand man for a long time. He helped construct the incredibly complex Apple supply chain, able to churning out hundreds of thousands of devices yearly made using components from across the planet. He has made an enormous contribution to each Apple product we use.
“Jeff (Williams) and I even have worked alongside one another for so long as I can remember, and Apple wouldn’t be what it’s without him. He’s helped to create one of the respected global supply chains on the planet; launched Apple Watch and overseen its development; architected Apple’s health strategy; and led our world-class team of designers with great wisdom, heart, and dedication,” said Cook.
Who’s Sabih Khan?
A 30-year Apple veteran, Khan became senior vp for operations in 2019 and has been answerable for all points of Apple’s global supply chain for the past six years. Before joining Apple’s procurement group in 1995, Khan worked as an applications development engineer and key account technical leader at GE Plastics.
“Sabih is a superb strategist who has been one in all the central architects of Apple’s supply chain,” said Cook. “While overseeing Apple’s supply chain, he has helped pioneer recent technologies in advanced manufacturing, overseen the expansion of Apple’s manufacturing footprint in america, and helped be certain that Apple may be nimble in response to global challenges. He has advanced our ambitious efforts in environmental sustainability, helping reduce Apple’s carbon footprint by greater than 60 percent. Above all, Sabih leads together with his heart and his values, and I do know he’ll make an exceptional chief operating officer.”
“I’ve had the pleasure of working closely with Sabih for 27 years and I feel he’s probably the most talented operations executive on the planet,” said Williams, the outgoing COO. “I even have tremendous confidence in Apple’s future under his leadership on this role.”
Succession
Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman reports that John Ternus, the senior hardware engineering chief, is now the more than likely substitute for Cook once he retires. But Gurman speculates Ternus will handle Apple Watch hardware, with the operating systems and health software to be handled by Head of Software Engineering Craig Federighi and Fitness+ to develop into an element of Services.
That’s logical and sounds highly credible, though does call into query Apple’s ability to deliver the profoundly powerful health-related features all of us think the corporate is working on.
That is unlikely to be the last planned transition from Apple’s top team, all of whom are concerning the same age.
The corporate must now determine create a posh succession plan to create an executive team that spans quite a few ages, as lots of the leaders of its existing senior team inexorably head toward well-earned retirement. This sure has been an extended week for Apple.
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