Mac OS X software chief Bertrand Serlet to depart Apple

Apple announced on Wednesday that Bertrand Serlet, the company's senior vice president of Mac Software Engineering and a man who has worked with Steve Jobs for 22 years, is leaving the company.

Serlet joined Apple in 1997 and has been involved in the definition, development and creation of Mac OS X. Before his time at Apple, Serlet spent four years at Xerox PARC, then joined NeXT with Jobs in 1989. He holds a doctorate in Computer Science from the University of Orsay, France.

"I've worked with Steve for 22 years and have had an incredible time developing products at both NeXT and Apple, but at this point, I want to focus less on products and more on science," Serlet said.

He will be replaced by Craig Federighi, Apple's vice president of Mac Software Engineering. In his new role, Federighi will assume Serlet's responsibilities and will report directly to Jobs.

Federighi is responsible for the development of Mac OS X, and has been managing the Mac OS software engineering group for the past two years. It was Federighi who gave a live demonstration of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion at a media event last October.

"Craig has done a great job managing the Mac OS team for the past two years," Serlet said. "Lion is a great release and the transition should be seamless."

Federighi worked at NeXT, followed by Apple, and spent a decade at Ariba where he held several roles including vice president of Internet Services and chief technology officer. He returned to Apple in 2009 to lead Mac OS X engineering. Federighi holds a Master of Science degree in Computer Science and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley.