So, about that press release Apple sent in June that SVP of Hardware Engineering Bob Mansfield would be retiring from the company? Uh, scratch that. He’s staying on at Apple after all, the company announced Monday afternoon. In addition, Apple CEO Tim Cook has promoted two new executives to the top tier of Apple’s leadership team: Craig Federighi, who will be SVP of Mac Software Engineering and Dan Riccio, who will be SVP of Hardware Engineering.
Dan Riccio
Craig Federighi
Federighi will be a familiar face to watchers of Apple keynotes over the years. He’s often brought on stage for demonstrations of new Mac software. He’s been leading Mac OS X engineering since 2009, but also worked earlier in his career at both Apple and NeXT. Riccio has been with Apple since 1998; he started as VP of Product design. Apple lists him as “a key contributor to most of Apple’s hardware over his career.” He’ll now lead all hardware engineering: Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod.
Mansfield’s new title wasn’t given, but the company said in a press release that he will stay on at Apple to “work on future products” and he will still report to Cook. After heading up Mac, then eventually, iPod, iPhone and iPad engineering, Mansfield announced he would retire at the end of June after 13 years with the company. He named a successor — Riccio — but curiously did not give a retirement date, perhaps reflecting his ambivalence about leaving.
Either way, it’s a pretty big coup for Cook to keep Mansfield around. Mansfield was part of the leadership team developed under Steve Jobs that got Apple to where it is today, and keeping that team intact as much as possible is an important priority for Cook and for the company’s future. While not quite as big as the legal victory over Samsung on Friday, this is a great way for Cook to begin his second year at the helm of Apple.
