Federighi, Riccio get promotions

Apple's senior VP for hardware engineering, Bob Mansfield, will be staying with the company in spite of an earlier statement that he was retiring, according to an announcement. He will take on a new title, but what that might be is so far undisclosed. Apple will only say that he's expected to "work on future projects" and continue to report to CEO Tim Cook.

Taking Mansfield's place is Dan Riccio, currently the VP for engineering. Separately Apple is promoting Craig Federighi, VP of Mac software engineering, to the rank of senior VP. Like Mansfield, both Riccio and Federighi will report directly to Cook. Federighi will remain responsible for OS X development and the company's OS engineering teams.

Apple's executive team has shifted around considerably in the past year. The most significant departure was of course co-founder Steve Jobs, who retired shortly before his death; several other executives have also left or changed roles however, requiring new hires to fill the gaps. It's unclear to what extent the shuffles may reflect Cook's new management approach, any dissatisfaction, and/or simple coincidence.

by MacNN Staff