Apple’s chief people officer is leaving the company after 20 months, reported this Wednesday.
Chief people officer, Carol Surface, was in charge of Apple’s recruiting, employee relations, and diversity efforts. An Apple spokesperson confirmed the same.
Her exit comes if at least four other executives decide to leave the company or change their roles.
Surface was one of the fewer than 20 executives reporting to Cook, who is currently dealing with a broader leadership change at Apple, based in Cupertino, California.
The head of Apple’s App Store, Matt Fischer, also announced on LinkedIn that he will be departing from the company this month after 21 years of service. He quoted that now was the ‘right moment to pass the baton’. Apple rearranges the team to manage new challenges and opportunities.
In August, the company announced that the chief financial officer Luca Maestri plans to step aside from his role in January. However, he will continue to work as head of Apple’s information systems and technology and also real estate development and reports to Cook. The company mentioned, that Kevan Parekh, VP of financial planning and analysis, will take over Maestri’s role.
The vice president of engineering, Dan Riccio, who headed Apple’s Vision Pro, will leave this company after more than 26 years.
Apple’s global chain procurement chief, Dan Rosckes, is also relieving after 24 years of service. Surface’s exit is the latest in a series of executive changes at Apple.
Surface joined the company in 2023 from Medtronic, a medical hardware company, to supervise Apple’s 160,000+ employees. At Medtronic, she was handling the role of an executive vice president in charge of human resources. She has continued to work in the same role for three and half years at Best Buy and also as in human resources and personnel at PepsiCo for more than a decade.
Apple employees were notified about the Surface’s departure on Wednesday. Surface was Apple’s first-ever Chief People Officer, who reports directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook. The report states that Apple executive Deirdre O’Brien will succeed Surface’s team. O’Brien was the company’s senior vice president of Retail and People from 2019 through March 2023. After Surface joined this company, Apple stepped down the human resource responsibilities from O’Brien’s role, allowing Surface to focus full-time on retail.
Recently, the company’s HR organization has witnessed several other changes, with its prior head of diversity and inclusion departing earlier this year. She was replaced by Cynthia Bowman, who joined from Bank of America Corp.
Surface’s quick exit is rare for executives at her level of seniority. A few years ago, Apple hired a new vice president of communications who left after just a few months. The company also hired retail chief John Browett, who was employed for less than a year, but that was more than ten years ago.
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