Apple has lost several key members of its health team recently, courtesy of a poaching campaign by health insurer Anthem. A CNBC report says Anthem is hiring Apple’s employees away as part of a campaign to improve its customer-friendliness.
Anthem has hired half a dozen or so current or former Apple employees over the last several months.
In the past few months, Anthem has hired Warris Bokhari from Apple Health, as well as Toni Trujillo Vian (a 24-year Apple vet), and senior machine learning researcher Stefanos Giampanis, according to LinkedIn and two people familiar with the matter.
The health insurer also hired Ted Goldstein, a former Apple vice president from 2002 to 2007, to run its AI and health data efforts, about six months ago, and some lower-level folks like Berick Bacani, a former Apple operations specialist, as a UX designer on the digital team.
Alongside the Apple hires, Anthem has also hired former Google executive Udi Manber, a former Google executive to serve as a technical advisor at Anthem.
The new hirings are part of the insurer’s efforts to modernize its consumer offerings and make them easier to use. The insurer has been looking to make its products more consumer-friendly.