Cupertino (CA) – Apple today announced a change in leadership for its iPod and iPhone division, arguable the most successful business in Apple’s history. Tony Fadell, who is largely credited with the invention of the original iPod and the creation of Apple’s audio content strategy, will resign from his role of senior vice president at Apple to become an advisor to Steve Jobs and spend more time with his family. Former IBM executive Mark Papermaster, who is at the center of an argument between IBM and Apple, will replace Fadell, at least in part, and lead the iPod and iPhone engineering teams.
There are very few people in the IT industry who can truly claim to have changed the lives of millions of people with their vision and relentless drive to pursue their dream. Tony Fadell, 39, one of the key personalities behind the iPod idea is one of them and now feels that it is time to dedicate more time with his wife and children. Fadell will remain at Apple as an “advisor to the CEO”, but give up his role as senior vice president of the iPod Division¸ which he held since April 2006 when he replaced then senior vice president of the iPod Division John Rubinstein.
Fadell’s wife, Danielle Lambert, vice president of Human Resources at Apple will also be leaving Apple. "Tony and Dani have each made important contributions to Apple over the past eight years. We're sorry to see Dani go, and are looking forward to working with Tony in his new capacity," CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement.
Fadell joined Apple in 2001 as a contractor, creating his vision of a hard drive based poprtable music player and what eventually turned into the iPod. He was hired to a full-time position just two months after his work as a contractor had begun and was put in charge of the iPod & Special Projects group. In 2004, he became vice president of iPod engineering in 2004.
The gap created by his departure will be filled by Mark Papermaster who will become senior vice president of Devices Hardware Engineering at Apple. We recently learned that Papermaster’s former employer, IBM, isn’t especially happy about the change because of a non-compete clause in a contract with Papermaster and it now seems that the company has in fact reason to complain. Apple said that Papermaster will lead Apple's iPod and iPhone hardware engineering teams, which includes oversight of new silicon developed by the PA Semi team, which previously developed Power-based processors. Papermaster’s 25 years of product and technology experience as well as his exposure as vice president at IBM could come in handy at Apple.
"Mark is a seasoned leader and is going to be an excellent addition to our senior management team," said Steve Jobs in a statement.
There are very few people in the IT industry who can truly claim to have changed the lives of millions of people with their vision and relentless drive to pursue their dream. Tony Fadell, 39, one of the key personalities behind the iPod idea is one of them and now feels that it is time to dedicate more time with his wife and children. Fadell will remain at Apple as an “advisor to the CEO”, but give up his role as senior vice president of the iPod Division¸ which he held since April 2006 when he replaced then senior vice president of the iPod Division John Rubinstein.
Fadell’s wife, Danielle Lambert, vice president of Human Resources at Apple will also be leaving Apple. "Tony and Dani have each made important contributions to Apple over the past eight years. We're sorry to see Dani go, and are looking forward to working with Tony in his new capacity," CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement.
Fadell joined Apple in 2001 as a contractor, creating his vision of a hard drive based poprtable music player and what eventually turned into the iPod. He was hired to a full-time position just two months after his work as a contractor had begun and was put in charge of the iPod & Special Projects group. In 2004, he became vice president of iPod engineering in 2004.
The gap created by his departure will be filled by Mark Papermaster who will become senior vice president of Devices Hardware Engineering at Apple. We recently learned that Papermaster’s former employer, IBM, isn’t especially happy about the change because of a non-compete clause in a contract with Papermaster and it now seems that the company has in fact reason to complain. Apple said that Papermaster will lead Apple's iPod and iPhone hardware engineering teams, which includes oversight of new silicon developed by the PA Semi team, which previously developed Power-based processors. Papermaster’s 25 years of product and technology experience as well as his exposure as vice president at IBM could come in handy at Apple.
"Mark is a seasoned leader and is going to be an excellent addition to our senior management team," said Steve Jobs in a statement.