While much of the focus as far as Apple’s hierarchy is concerned is focused on the US, it’s worth taking a look at what’s happening over the pond, as there is some pretty big restructuring going down.
MacGeneration reports that following the resignation of Paul Cagni, the VP of Apple’s EMEIA (Europe, Middle East, India, Asia) division, Hervé Marchet (pictured), the president is also being pushed out, Apple having asked him to resign.
Apple’s first international branch (Apple France) was created by Jean-Louis Gassée back in 1981 and has been an important part of the company ever since. However Apple’s latest move could suggest that it is trying to merge itself and the EMEIA subsidiary back together, something which would truly kick off the Tim Cook era.
Steve Jobs hired Cagni in person back in 2000, and remained on close terms until the former’s passing. Marchet also arrived at the company in 2000, with both representing important figures from the jobs era.
Rumor has it that Tim Cook didn’t get on well with Cagni and his colleagues on his numerous trips to Europe in recent months, and as Cagni himself puts it, it seems that Apple is no longer ‘the eldest daughter of the Apple church’. And the relatively recent transfer of the Apple EMEIA HQ from Paris to London could be seen as illustrating that.
According to Cook, one of the last things Steve Jobs said to him was not to try and think what the latter would have done. Jobs wanted cook to make decisions based on his judgement, and it certainly seems that he has been doing that so far. You have to credit him for that, as not many people would have been able to put Jobs’ legacy aside and think for themselves.
