Apple’s Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, Bob Mansfield, announced his retirement at the end of June, and that the job would be passed to then VP of iPad Engineering Dan Riccio.
Mansfield had been with Apple for 13 years, having joined soon after Steve Jobs’ return, and has worked on most of Apple’s high-profile hardware projects since then. His departure was speculated to be due either in part to Jobs’ death, or to the $58 million-worth of shares he was said to have cashed out over the past three years.
However, the reason is now moot, as an Apple press release has stated that Mansfield will not be retiring after all, and will stay with the company.
None other than Tim Cook is quoted as saying Mansfield will “remain at Apple” and that he will “work on future products,” but a job title isn’t mentioned. In all probability, Mansfield never got around to leaving Apple, as he was staying on until later in the year to ensure the Riccio’s transition went smoothly.
Bob Mansfield: Job title TBA?
The press release confirms that Dan Riccio has been promoted to the lofty role of Senior VP of Hardware Engineering, and that Craig Federighi has become Senior VP of Mac Software Engineering.
If you head over to Apple’s wall of leadership, you’ll notice that Mansfield is still listed as Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, the same as Riccio. It’ll be worth keeping watch to see if this changes in the near future.
Bob Mansfield’s departure would have been a high-profile one, as he is one of Apple’s old-guard who worked closely with Steve Jobs — therefore he understands the all-important Apple culture, in the same way as other long-standing employees. Amongst the twelve executives, he is one of eight who joined the company in the 90s.
His decision to stay reflects well on Tim Cook, who clearly wants to avoid any major shake-ups, particularly at the executive level, in order to help maintain the company’s incredible momentum.
That said, we’re sure the possibility of a $60 million stock bonus being paid out to Apple’s senior executives in 2016 was a very tempting carrot-on-a-stick too.
