Apple appoints COO in executive rejig

Apple says Jeff Williams will now be its chief operating officer, and that Johny Srouji is joining Apple’s executive team as senior vice president for hardware technologies. Phil Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide marketing, will expand his role to include leadership of the App Store across all Apple platforms.

Apple also announced that Tor Myhren will join Apple in the first calendar quarter of 2016 as vice president of marketing communications, reporting to CEO Tim Cook.

“We are fortunate to have incredible depth and breadth of talent across Apple’s executive team. As we come to the end of the year, we’re recognising the contributions already being made by two key executives,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Jeff is hands-down the best operations executive I’ve ever worked with, and Johny’s team delivers world-class silicon designs which enable new innovations in our products year after year.”

Cook added: “In addition, Phil is taking on new responsibilities for advancing our ecosystem, led by the App Store, which has grown from a single, groundbreaking iOS store into four powerful platforms and an increasingly important part of our business. And I’m incredibly happy to welcome Tor Myhren, who will bring his creative talents to our advertising and marcom functions.”

Jeff Williams joined Apple in 1998 as head of worldwide procurement and in 2004 he was named vice president of operations. Since 2010 he has overseen Apple’s entire supply chain, service and support. He played a key role in Apple’s entry into the mobile phone market with the launch of the iPhone, and he continues to supervise development of Apple’s first wearable product Apple Watch.

Phil Schiller now leads nearly all developer-related functions at Apple, in addition to his other marketing responsibilities including worldwide product marketing, international marketing, education and business marketing. Apple said more than 11 million developers around the world create apps for Apple’s four software platforms — iOS, OS X, watchOS and tvOS — as well as compatible hardware and other accessories.

Tor Myhren joins Apple from Grey Group, where he has served as chief creative officer and president of Grey New York. He will succeed Hiroki Asai, who earlier announced plans to retire after 18 years in graphic design and marketing communications roles at Apple.

@AntonySavvas