Apple scrubs VP of Special Projects Paul Deneve's bio page from website [u]
Apple this week removed Apple VP of Special Projects Paul Deneve's bio from its Apple Leadership webpage, suggesting the executive has changed roles or is no longer with the company.
Paul Deneve's Apple bio prior to removal.
Prior to the change, Deneve's headshot was one of only 19 featured prominently on the Executive Profiles page of Apple's press information mini-site. The link to his bio is now inactive and forwards to a generic landing page reading "The page you're looking for can't be found."
Whether Deneve stepped down, changed positions or is no longer affiliated with Apple is unclear. According to his LinkedIn profile, Deneve is still serving as an Apple vice president, though information from the business-oriented social network is circumstantial at best.
Deneve began his professional career as a European marketing and sales manager at Apple in 1990. He made a move to the world of fashion by serving as managing director at Courreges in 1997, then president of Nina Ricci and Lanvin in 2003 and 2006, respectively.
Before returning to Apple in 2013 to head up "special projects" under CEO Tim Cook, Deneve held the position of CEO at French label Yves Saint Laurent, now known as Saint Laurent.
Upon his return, Deneve applied lessons learned from the fashion industry to marketing Apple's first wearable device, the Apple Watch. Last year, for example, the executive helped create a large floral-themed installation that took up all 24 windows at storied London department store Selfridges.
Update: Follow-up reports claim Deneve is still with Apple, but no longer reports to CEO Tim Cook.
Paul Deneve's Apple bio prior to removal.
Prior to the change, Deneve's headshot was one of only 19 featured prominently on the Executive Profiles page of Apple's press information mini-site. The link to his bio is now inactive and forwards to a generic landing page reading "The page you're looking for can't be found."
Whether Deneve stepped down, changed positions or is no longer affiliated with Apple is unclear. According to his LinkedIn profile, Deneve is still serving as an Apple vice president, though information from the business-oriented social network is circumstantial at best.
Deneve began his professional career as a European marketing and sales manager at Apple in 1990. He made a move to the world of fashion by serving as managing director at Courreges in 1997, then president of Nina Ricci and Lanvin in 2003 and 2006, respectively.
Before returning to Apple in 2013 to head up "special projects" under CEO Tim Cook, Deneve held the position of CEO at French label Yves Saint Laurent, now known as Saint Laurent.
Upon his return, Deneve applied lessons learned from the fashion industry to marketing Apple's first wearable device, the Apple Watch. Last year, for example, the executive helped create a large floral-themed installation that took up all 24 windows at storied London department store Selfridges.
Update: Follow-up reports claim Deneve is still with Apple, but no longer reports to CEO Tim Cook.
Comments
That is not a promotion. It sounds like he was getting a lot of money for not a lot of results. The Apple Watch seems to be doing fine but the high fashion aspect seems to have been a failure.
I'm sure for shareholders the path down luxury brand lane will be good for short term, high margin profits... but eventually that crowd moves on when you're no longer cool... and given they're clear slowdown in genuine innovation in product categories, IxD and ID they'll be paying a price down the road... They'll be the Versace of tech.
Apple Watch is doing fine as far as fashion goes but I still agree with your point as it could be doing a lot better.
Had Apple made a solid eco-system around the new MBP (e.g. a dock or display that acted like a doc) that possibly also was an "intelligent hub" that would be another example... there's plenty they could do with their existing eco-system with forward thinking on the user experience side and some solid code crafting.
Another (though rather boring) innovation Apple has let slip is having things "just work"... as a long time Apple developer and user you can see/feel/experience the bit-rot in (mac/i)OS... most I'm seeing issues we used to laugh at Windows for (and don't know how long time Apple fans can suggest back up and reinstall the OS with a straight face). Even in the SDK I'm seeing side effects and clunky-ness that wouldn't have passed muster several years ago.
They could either open up Siri or get their act together on cloud services to create some compelling solutions (why can't I ask Siri "Show me airfares to London leaving next Monday coming back Thursday?"... they could have a solution based on something like Alexa Skills, with a approval process to allow Kayak or others to fill in the gaps).
And there is a way to get macOS/iOS to converge (there could be convergence in the iPad Pro and MacBook to make a truly wonderful device... yes it's work, but you can see the glimmer of it through the haze).
All it would take is courage (vs. "courage").