Apple today announced that COO Jeff Williams will retire later this year, with Sabih Khan set to assume the COO role later this month.
In addition to his role as COO, however, Williams is also responsible for overseeing Apple’s design team. Once Williams officially retires later this year, Apple says that the design team will begin reporting directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook.
From Apple’s press release today:
Apple today announced Jeff Williams will transition his role as chief operating officer later this month to Sabih Khan, Apple’s senior vice president of Operations as part of a long-planned succession. Williams will continue reporting to Apple CEO Tim Cook and overseeing Apple’s world class design team and Apple Watch alongside the company’s Health initiatives. Apple’s design team will then transition to reporting directly to Cook after Williams retires late in the year.
Williams assumed some responsibility of the design team in 2019 when Jony Ive, Apple’s then-chief design officer, departed the company to form LoveFrom, his own design company. At the time, Apple said that Evans Hankey, vice president of Industrial Design, and Alan Dye, vice president of Human Interface Design, would report directly to Williams.
Evans Hankey departed Apple in 2023 and is now working alongside Ive and OpenAI on a mysterious hardware product. In conjunction with Hankey’s departure, Apple eliminated its “industrial design chief” role altogether, opting to shift full responsibility for Apple’s core industrial design team to Williams.
With Williams now set to retire later this year, the design team will report directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Williams also oversees the Apple Watch and Apple’s broader Health initiatives and will continue to do so until his retirement later this year. As of right now, Apple hasn’t shared specific details on who will take the reins of those teams.
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