As of Wednesday, Chief People Officer Carol Surface leaves Apple, the latest in a string of executives to do so. And she’s going after an unusually short two years of service for a top executive, according to a new report.
Other executive departures and role shifts include like Luca Maestri stepping down as CFO and longtime engineering exec Dan Riccio retiring.
Chief people officer is latest executive to leave Apple
Surface will soon to depart from Apple. She started with the iPhone giant in early 2023, with her head-of-human-resources title of “chief people officer” created for her, reporting to CEO Tim Cook, according to Bloomberg.
Surface had been part of a group of fewer than 20 executives reporting to Cook, who the report said “is dealing with a broader changing of the guard” at Apple.
Surface is just the latest to go in that changing of the guard. Maestri steps down as CFO by the end of the year, but takes on other duties, for now, as head of the Corporate Services teams. And October marks the retirement of Dan Riccio, a senior engineering executive who oversaw Vision Pro. Other new departures include Dan Rosckes, who served as head of procurement, and Matt Fischer, the head of App Store, according to sources. In addition, Apple HR saw Bank of America’s Cynthia Bowman, take over as head of diversity earlier this year after the prior chief left.
Chief people officer leaves Apple, unusually swiftly
Coming from a similar role at health technology company Medtronic, Surface joined Apple in 2023. She oversaw human resources, inclusion, diversity and recruiting for Apple, which employs about 160,000 people. Previously Deirdre O’Brien, head of the iPhone giant’s retail stores, held the role, and she will return to it in Surface’s absence, in addition to running retail.
But it’s unusual for an Apple senior executive to leave as soon as Surface did. Bloomberg pointed out that a newly appointed VP of communications departed after just a few months a few years ago. And before that, more than 10 years ago, head of retail John Browett hit the road after less than a year on the job.
