Apple announced through a press release today that Bob Mansfield, the company’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, is preparing to retire. Mansfield has been with Apple since 1999, and played a key role in many of Apple’s biggest products, including the iPod, iPad, iPhone, and MacBook Air.
From the press release:
“Bob has been an instrumental part of our executive team, leading the hardware engineering organization and overseeing the team that has delivered dozens of breakthrough products over the years,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We are very sad to have him leave and hope he enjoys every day of his retirement.”
Mansfield will be succeeded by Dan Riccio, Apple’s vice president of iPad Hardware Engineering, who was one of Mansfield’s “key lieutenants”, and who has been working for Apple since 1998. Tim Cook spoke highly of Riccio, stating:
Our hardware engineering team is the best engineering team on earth and will not miss a beat during the transition.
Mansfield’s departure follows that of retail chief Ron Johnson, Bertrand Serlet, Tony Fadell, and other high-level executives.