Apple has appointed senior vice president Jeff Williams as COO, taking up a role that was left vacant when Tim Cook became CEO in 2011. Williams joined Apple in 1998. Cook said Williams was “hands-down the best operations executive I’ve ever worked with.” Williams becomes Apple’s fourth C-level executive, alongside Cook, CFO Luca Maestri and chief design officer Johathan Ive. Apple’s new COO oversaw the development of the Apple Watch. He was already responsible for overseeing supply chain and operations, so the new title is a formality.
In addition, Apple has named Johny Srouji as senior vice president for hardware technologies. He currently oversees the team that designs Apple chips. The company has also hired Grey New York’s chief creative officer and president, Tor Myhren, to be its new vice president of marketing communications. He will join Apple in the first quarter of 2016.
Williams joined the company in 1998 as head of worldwide procurement and in 2004 he was named vice president of Operations. Since 2010 he has overseen the group's entire supply chain, service and support, and the social responsibility initiatives which protect more than one million workers worldwide. He played a key role in Apple’s entry into the mobile phone market with the launch of iPhone, and he continues to supervise development of the Apple Watch.
