How Jeff Williams' departure from Apple will shuffle exec responsibilities
The departure of Apple's Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams later in 2025 will set the stage for more consolidation under other veteran executives. Here's what projects are expected to land on other desks.
Apple COO Williams and CEO Cook during a recent tour of China. Image credit: Tim Cook/Weibo
Recent announcements have indicated that Apple's design teams, which currently report to Williams, will now report to CEO Tim Cook. But a new report suggests that other veteran executives will likely assist in overseeing the company's hardware and software design departments.
Bloomberg notes that this isn't the first time Apple's design teams have been supervised directly by Cook -- he had those departments reporting directly to him from 2015 to 2017. However, it remains likely that Vice President of Human Interface Alan Dye and VP of Industrial Design Molly Anderson will likely take more direct day-to-day responsibility.
In particular, Williams took a keen interest in the development of the Apple Watch and health-related hardware development. However, Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering John Ternus has been in direct charge of the Apple Watch since 2022.
Development groups shifting to other executives
When Williams officially departs the company, two teams he oversaw -- the watchOS software development group and Evan Doll's health software engineering group -- will now be overseen by SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi.
A health product development group run by Dr. Sumbul Desai will also come under Federighi's purview. The Fitness+ subscription service will likely move to Apple's existing services group, which includes other subscription offerings such as Apple TV+, iCloud, and Apple Music. That group current reports to SVP of Services Eddy Cue.
Williams' replacement, current SVP of Operations Sabih Khan, will likely take over supervision of the AppleCare team. Khan will like also have Apple's Greater China team reporting to him, as well as to Cook, as they did under Williams.
The departure of Williams has also raised speculation about who on the current executive team would be in line to replace CEO Cook if and when he opts to retire. At the moment, the leading candidate among Apple-watchers is 50-year-old SVP of Hardware Engineering John Ternus.
But, it won't be because Cook got fired by the board of directors.
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Comments
Apple does best when it’s able to promote from within, but that appears to be happening less and less as they seem to want to present leadership that looks the part over people that really are invested to making great products.
Apple has such a chronologically old leadership team. I completely agree with the above two comments that Apple needs new blood to revitalize its design ideas. The company also needs to be restructured, so it can focus on more than 3-5 products at one time. Apple is rapidly becoming IBM of yore, resting on its laurels. What was the innovation from this past year? Apple Intelligence was a completely failure, delivering no tools useful in real life. What's the innovation this year? It's a GUI refresh. <rolling eyes> Do you know what company (relatively) recently did a GUI refresh with a "glass interface"? Microsoft. So, Apple is trying to emulate Microsoft now? <rolling eyes> Hire/promote younger people to bring a new perspective on project and more youthful energy to spur innovation. A new orange color for the iPhone 17 Pro is hardly innovation.