Neil Hughes
In an interview about the need for diversity in the tech industry, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook hinted that women will be prominently featured onstage at today's WWDC keynote, which could mean the highly anticipated on-stage debut of retail chief Angela Ahrendts.
Photo credit: The Times UK
Ahrendts is no stranger to the spotlight, from her time as CEO of Burberry, and even in regular videos shown to Apple Store employees around the world. But in her tenure at Apple, she has yet to take a publicly visible role, despite expectations that she would.
That could change today, Cook hinted in an interview with Mashable, conducted on the eve of his company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference. Cook was asked about the lack of women onstage at WWDC keynotes, and the CEO replied that critics should keep a close eye on today's keynote, which starts at 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Eastern.
"Look tomorrow and let me know what you think," Cook said. "I totally agree with you. You'll see a change tomorrow."
Ahrendts is the senior most female executive among Apple's leadership, though the company's top brass remains dominated by white males. The other vice-president-level women at the company are Environmental Initiatives head Lisa Jackson, and Worldwide Human Resources chief Denis Young Smith.
Cook said that diversity is "the future" of Apple, which is why it has become such an important issue to him. The onus, he said, is on the entire tech industry to make the entire community more welcoming and open to women and minorities.
Increased diversity in tech will lead to better products, Cook said, with people from different backgrounds bringing a range of ideas to the table.
Apple's own efforts are said to include talks with young women and historically black colleges, encouraging students to pursue degrees in technology. He's also looking to have more role models at Apple for women and minorities — a trend that's expected to begin in earnest today with the WWDC keynote.
AppleInsider will be there live at the Moscone Center all week for WWDC, including today's keynote.
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76 Comments
Yes because Angela Ahrendts is the only woman that works at Apple. :rolleyes: She wasn't on stage back in March, why on earth would she be on stage today? If we see women on stage today I fully expect it to be people we're not familiar with, people who work in Apple's engineering or marketing organizations.
Writer failed to point out that she's a Methodist - Christian. Which, Christianity isn't popular in the tech community these days.
Cheers to diversity.
[quote name="AppleInsider" url="/t/186624/tim-cook-hints-apple-retail-chief-angela-ahrendts-could-take-stage-today-at-wwdc#post_2732178"]He's also looking to have more role models at Apple for women and minorities -- a trend that's expected to begin in earnest today with the WWDC keynote.[/quote] Due to the way the paragraph breaks, I read this as fashion runway models the first time, considering Ahrendts and the focus on fashion as of late. ;-)
[quote name="sog35" url="/t/186624/tim-cook-hints-apple-retail-chief-angela-ahrendts-could-take-stage-today-at-wwdc#post_2732192"]I hope so. I'd rather see Ahrendts up there than that guy who looks like a total nerd who did the watch demo last time. I think his name is Lynch. If the Watch is about style why are they putting a nerd looking dweb Kevin Lynch on the stage? [/quote] This is a developer conference. The time to put Ahrendts on stage was back in March. She would have no clue about native SDK for the Watch. Perhaps Craig Federighi will be the one discussing it today.
I hope so.
I'd rather see Ahrendts up there than that guy who looks like a total nerd who did the watch demo last time. I think his name is Lynch.
If the Watch is about style why are they putting a nerd looking dweb Kevin Lynch on the stage?
It's funny how you often manage to make such terrible posts on this forum. Holding so much stock, and being such a proclaimed Apple fan, you should have realized by now that Apple actually puts the leads of the product development teams up on stage, not some random joe blow with "style". That's why Federhigi does OSX/iOS, and thats why Kevin Lynch did the Watch demo, because he was head of software development for that platform. What a nasty comment. These "nerd looking dweebs" are the people who are creating your favorite products" so try to have an ounce of respect.