Apple’s Chief People Officer Carol Surface is moving on to greener pastures, reports Bloomberg. Surface has only been with the company for 20 months, joining the company in February 2023.
Surface’s short stay at Apple is rather unusual, as most of Apple’s senior executives stay at the Cupertino company for much longer periods of time. Her premature departure indicates that either Surface wasn’t the right fit for the position, or perhaps she’s found more appealing employment elsewhere.
Surface was hired for Apple’s primary human resources role when the company decided to spilt the role from retail last year. Surface reported directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook. The chief people officer title was created when she joined Apple.
Deirdre O’Brien had been handling both the retail and “people” role, but concentrated on overseeing retail when Surface joined the company. With Surface’s departure, O’Brien will once again oversee both retail and people.
Surface was previously the chief human resources officer at Medtronic.
Apple has seen several high-level executive departures in recent years. CFO Luca Maestri will leave the company at the end of this year, and engineering vice president Dan Riccio will also soon retire.