by Jason Snell
Apple promotes Williams, puts Schiller in charge of App Store
In a press release today, Apple announced some big executive-team changes. Jeff Williams, who has been following in Tim Cook’s operations footsteps, has been named Chief Operating Officer.
Former Apple VP of Hardware Technologies Johny Srouji1 is now a Senior VP, and a member of Apple’s top-level executive team. Tor Myhren, an ad executive currently at Grey Group, is joining Apple as vice president of Marketing Communications, and will be in charge of advertising.
Then there’s the move that might be the biggest from the perspective of the people who follow Apple closely: Marketing SVP Phil Schiller has been given an additional responsibility: the App Store. As the PR says:
Phil now leads nearly all developer-related functions at Apple, in addition to his other marketing responsibilities including Worldwide Product Marketing, international marketing, education and business marketing.
Putting all developer-related functions under Schiller seems like a great move to me. There’s no way to tell if any of the current criticisms of the App Store are based on decisions (or inaction) of the previous leadership of that group. But fresh eyes, and a leader who’s already got Developer Relations under his purview, sure can’t hurt.
- Not a single Apple executive named Johnny spells it right. Then again, I podcast with a guy named Myke. ↩