6 ms·

Senior VP Bob Mansfield removed from Apple's leadership page

41 points by cheeyoonlee 13y ago

cheeyoonlee 13y ago
Has someone accidentally deleted the profile of one of Apple's most important figureheads or has Mr. Mansfield decided to step aside?
- JonFish85 13y ago
  Another option could be a transition into a less-visible role prior to his expected departure date of sometime in 2014....
  - balanceiskey15 13y ago
    Was this expected? I figured after he returned he'd be sticking around for a bit.
    - JonFish85 13y ago
      I believe he was committed to staying "at least" through 2014. I'm not sure of the details of it all, of course. I just thought it could be a possibility--it would be odd for him to leave less than a year after being convinced to stick around for a bit (in my opinion; I don't know the guy.)
- PhasmaFelis 13y ago
  That's an excellent question, and one that this submission is definitely not going to answer.
hga 13y ago
Geeze, I'm reminded of Kremlinology; Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kremlinology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kremlinology) puts it well: "During the Cold War, lack of reliable information about the country forced Western analysts to "read between the lines" and to use the tiniest tidbits, such as the removal of portraits, the rearranging of chairs, positions at the reviewing stand for parades in Red Square...."
- gojomo 13y ago
  Cupertinology?
PhasmaFelis 13y ago
When I clicked on "Senior VP Bob Mansfield removed from Apple's leadership page", I was sort of expecting some kind of speculation on why Bob Mansfield was removed, what it might mean for Apple, maybe even a clue as to who exactly Bob Mansfield is and what he does at Apple. Instead I got a link to the leadership page. See, he's not there! "Senior VP Bill the Cat removed from Apple's leadership page" would've carried just as much information.
- cheeyoonlee 13y ago
  True that, I was just a bit puzzled when I found out. Tried looking around for more details regarding any speculation but no updates from any major sources.
- wging 13y ago
  Here is a page mirrored at archive.org, now 404ing on Apple's website, that will provide at least a little more information on Bill the Cat. http://web.archive.org/web/20130723144507/http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/bob-mansfield.html http://web.archive.org/web/20130723144507/http://www.apple.c... According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Mansfield https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Mansfield, he was retiring as of 13 months ago but stayed on for some reason, possibly because of Scott Forstall's departure. Given the circumstances, his may have been an interim role while Apple searched for a long-term solution.
- 8ig8 13y ago
  I agree. I'm not sure if this helps much, but here's the page from 7/23 which included his listing... http://web.archive.org/web/20130723083752/http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/ http://web.archive.org/web/20130723083752/http://www.apple.c... And here's his page now returning a 404... http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/bob-mansfield.html http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/bob-mansfield.html (And, most importantly, I wanted to say how much I miss Bloom County.)
taspeotis 13y ago
From MacRumors: > According to Reuters reporter Poornima Gupta, "Bob Mansfield is no longer on Apple's exec team but will remain at Apple working on special projects reporting to Cook." > ... > Last year, Apple announced that Mansfield would be retiring, but several months later announced he would instead be staying at the company. Later, it leaked that Tim Cook had faced an "insurrection" after Mansfield announced his retirement, and Cook gave him an extremely generous benefits package. So he's moved on to whatever special arrangement has been made for him? http://www.macrumors.com/2013/07/28/apple-senior-vice-president-bob-mansfield-removed-from-leadership-webpage/ http://www.macrumors.com/2013/07/28/apple-senior-vice-presid...
sengstrom 13y ago
Not knowing anything about Apple leadership in the first place I was struck by the male homogenity on that page.
- padraigm 13y ago
  Yeah, my first thought was "wow look at all these old white guys". If the pictures weren't right next to each other I'd probably have trouble telling any two of them apart.
  - sjtgraham 13y ago
    If you think that's an acceptable thing to say, :%s/white/any other race/g and re-read your comment.
    - jlgaddis 13y ago
      Does everything have to be racist nowadays? I'm an "old white guy". I wasn't offended.
      - sjtgraham 13y ago
        That's great, I'm happy for you. However, implying that people of the same race look alike as to be indistinguishable from one another is offensive to a lot of people.
        jlgaddis 13y ago
        A lot of old white men do look alike. It's not racist, it's an observation.
        ravisarma 13y ago
        I suggest @jlgaddis's responses highlight an important distinction between "offensive" (the word used by @sjtgraham) and "racist". While it is always a good rule of thumb to seek not to offend, often we might waive that to aid humour or to bring out a point. In this case I suspect the OP (OC?) was trying to mock (in turn to highlight the uniformity of the Apple leadership team), by clever reversal, the common occurrence of some white people's inability to differentiate between people of other colours (I am brown, my sons at school are frequently referred to by names of other Indian kids, some who have graduated and left the school 3-4 years ago; that's hardly racist, or even offensive, especially in comparison to the lack of women and minority in positions of leadership and power).
supercoder 13y ago
Bob didn't run the developer portal did he ?
- veemjeem 13y ago
  He did hardware.
mrpollo 13y ago
taken from the wayback machine Bob Mansfield Senior Vice President, Mac Hardware Engineering Bob Mansfield is Apple's senior vice president of Technologies, reporting to CEO Tim Cook. http://web.archive.org/web/20130723083752/http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/ http://web.archive.org/web/20130723083752/http://www.apple.c...
notloggedin 13y ago
He was essentially pulled out of the retirement to stay on for a while so this is not that surprising.
samplonius 13y ago
He is retiring. I guess several months turned into one month. Or, you don't want a lame duck VP on your leadership page. Probably a bit of both. http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2012/06/28Bob-Mansfield-Apples-Senior-Vice-President-of-Hardware-Engineering-to-Retire.html http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2012/06/28Bob-Mansfield-Appl...
eminemence 13y ago
Did anyone notice the only person not smiling in this page? Seems to be really sad while taking that pic.
- shin_lao 13y ago
  There are several persons not smiling on the page.
MaysonL 13y ago
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_23751590/apples-bob-mansfield-no-longer-executive-team http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_23751590/apples-bob-m... He's moving into "special projects", reporting to Cook.
AdamN 13y ago
What about Andrea Jung on the board? No hyperlink for her profile and she was fired as CEO of Avon last year (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-05/avon-executive-chairman-andrea-jung-to-step-down-at-year-end.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-05/avon-executive-chai...).

41 points by cheeyoonlee 13y ago

Has someone accidentally deleted the profile of one of Apple's most important figureheads or has Mr. Mansfield decided to step aside?

JonFish85 13y ago
Another option could be a transition into a less-visible role prior to his expected departure date of sometime in 2014....
- balanceiskey15 13y ago
  Was this expected? I figured after he returned he'd be sticking around for a bit.
  - JonFish85 13y ago
    I believe he was committed to staying "at least" through 2014. I'm not sure of the details of it all, of course. I just thought it could be a possibility--it would be odd for him to leave less than a year after being convinced to stick around for a bit (in my opinion; I don't know the guy.)
PhasmaFelis 13y ago
That's an excellent question, and one that this submission is definitely not going to answer.

hga 13y ago

Geeze, I'm reminded of Kremlinology; Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kremlinology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kremlinology) puts it well: "During the Cold War, lack of reliable information about the country forced Western analysts to "read between the lines" and to use the tiniest tidbits, such as the removal of portraits, the rearranging of chairs, positions at the reviewing stand for parades in Red Square...."

gojomo 13y ago
Cupertinology?

PhasmaFelis 13y ago

When I clicked on "Senior VP Bob Mansfield removed from Apple's leadership page", I was sort of expecting some kind of speculation on why Bob Mansfield was removed, what it might mean for Apple, maybe even a clue as to who exactly Bob Mansfield is and what he does at Apple. Instead I got a link to the leadership page. See, he's not there! "Senior VP Bill the Cat removed from Apple's leadership page" would've carried just as much information.

cheeyoonlee 13y ago
True that, I was just a bit puzzled when I found out. Tried looking around for more details regarding any speculation but no updates from any major sources.
wging 13y ago
Here is a page mirrored at archive.org, now 404ing on Apple's website, that will provide at least a little more information on Bill the Cat. http://web.archive.org/web/20130723144507/http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/bob-mansfield.html http://web.archive.org/web/20130723144507/http://www.apple.c... According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Mansfield https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Mansfield, he was retiring as of 13 months ago but stayed on for some reason, possibly because of Scott Forstall's departure. Given the circumstances, his may have been an interim role while Apple searched for a long-term solution.
8ig8 13y ago
I agree. I'm not sure if this helps much, but here's the page from 7/23 which included his listing... http://web.archive.org/web/20130723083752/http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/ http://web.archive.org/web/20130723083752/http://www.apple.c... And here's his page now returning a 404... http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/bob-mansfield.html http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/bob-mansfield.html (And, most importantly, I wanted to say how much I miss Bloom County.)

taspeotis 13y ago

From MacRumors: > According to Reuters reporter Poornima Gupta, "Bob Mansfield is no longer on Apple's exec team but will remain at Apple working on special projects reporting to Cook." > ... > Last year, Apple announced that Mansfield would be retiring, but several months later announced he would instead be staying at the company. Later, it leaked that Tim Cook had faced an "insurrection" after Mansfield announced his retirement, and Cook gave him an extremely generous benefits package. So he's moved on to whatever special arrangement has been made for him? http://www.macrumors.com/2013/07/28/apple-senior-vice-president-bob-mansfield-removed-from-leadership-webpage/ http://www.macrumors.com/2013/07/28/apple-senior-vice-presid...

sengstrom 13y ago

Not knowing anything about Apple leadership in the first place I was struck by the male homogenity on that page.

padraigm 13y ago
Yeah, my first thought was "wow look at all these old white guys". If the pictures weren't right next to each other I'd probably have trouble telling any two of them apart.
- sjtgraham 13y ago
  If you think that's an acceptable thing to say, :%s/white/any other race/g and re-read your comment.
  - jlgaddis 13y ago
    Does everything have to be racist nowadays? I'm an "old white guy". I wasn't offended.
    - sjtgraham 13y ago
      That's great, I'm happy for you. However, implying that people of the same race look alike as to be indistinguishable from one another is offensive to a lot of people.
      - jlgaddis 13y ago
        A lot of old white men do look alike. It's not racist, it's an observation.
        ravisarma 13y ago
        I suggest @jlgaddis's responses highlight an important distinction between "offensive" (the word used by @sjtgraham) and "racist". While it is always a good rule of thumb to seek not to offend, often we might waive that to aid humour or to bring out a point. In this case I suspect the OP (OC?) was trying to mock (in turn to highlight the uniformity of the Apple leadership team), by clever reversal, the common occurrence of some white people's inability to differentiate between people of other colours (I am brown, my sons at school are frequently referred to by names of other Indian kids, some who have graduated and left the school 3-4 years ago; that's hardly racist, or even offensive, especially in comparison to the lack of women and minority in positions of leadership and power).

supercoder 13y ago

Bob didn't run the developer portal did he ?

veemjeem 13y ago
He did hardware.

mrpollo 13y ago

taken from the wayback machine Bob Mansfield Senior Vice President, Mac Hardware Engineering Bob Mansfield is Apple's senior vice president of Technologies, reporting to CEO Tim Cook. http://web.archive.org/web/20130723083752/http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/ http://web.archive.org/web/20130723083752/http://www.apple.c...

notloggedin 13y ago

He was essentially pulled out of the retirement to stay on for a while so this is not that surprising.

samplonius 13y ago

He is retiring. I guess several months turned into one month. Or, you don't want a lame duck VP on your leadership page. Probably a bit of both. http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2012/06/28Bob-Mansfield-Apples-Senior-Vice-President-of-Hardware-Engineering-to-Retire.html http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2012/06/28Bob-Mansfield-Appl...

eminemence 13y ago

Did anyone notice the only person not smiling in this page? Seems to be really sad while taking that pic.

shin_lao 13y ago
There are several persons not smiling on the page.

MaysonL 13y ago

http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_23751590/apples-bob-mansfield-no-longer-executive-team http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_23751590/apples-bob-m... He's moving into "special projects", reporting to Cook.

AdamN 13y ago

What about Andrea Jung on the board? No hyperlink for her profile and she was fired as CEO of Avon last year (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-05/avon-executive-chairman-andrea-jung-to-step-down-at-year-end.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-05/avon-executive-chai...).