Apple Taps Highly-Regarded Executive to Oversee Car Project
July 25 2016 - 11:30AM
Dow Jones News
Apple Inc. has tapped a highly-regarded senior executive who
helped bring to market many of Apple's signature products to
oversee its fledgling automobile project, according to people
familiar with the matter.
Bob Mansfield had stepped back from a day-to-day role at the
company a few years ago, after leading the hardware engineering
development of products including the MacBook Air laptop computer,
the iMac desktop computer, and the iPad tablet. Apple now has Mr.
Mansfield running the company's secret autonomous, electric-vehicle
initiative, code-named Project Titan, the people said.
Mr. Mansfield, who joined Apple in 1999 and was one of its top
executives under former Chief Executive Steve Jobs, had been an
adviser at the company since leaving Apple's executive team in
2013. At the time, Apple said Mr. Mansfield was going to remain at
Apple to work on special projects and report to CEO Tim Cook. One
of those projects—the Apple Watch—was introduced last year.
Until recently, Mr. Mansfield—who, along with design chief Jony
Ive, was one of the few executives to appear in Apple's
carefully-crafted product announcement videos—had all but retreated
from the company aside from the occasional visit, these people
said. Earlier this month, employees at Apple noticed in the company
directory that all the senior managers on the car project were now
reporting to Mr. Mansfield, they said.
An Apple spokesman declined to comment on personnel matters. Mr.
Mansfield didn't respond to an email seeking comment.
Write to Daisuke Wakabayashi at Daisuke.Wakabayashi@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 25, 2016 11:15 ET (15:15 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2024 to Oct 2024
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Historical Stock Chart
From Oct 2023 to Oct 2024