Apple SVP of Hardware Engineering Bob Mansfield to retire

Apple announced on Thursday that Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering Bob Mansfield will be retiring after a 13-year stint with the company and will be replaced by Vice President of iPad Hardware Engineering Dan Riccio in a transition that is expected to take "several months."

Mansfield, who joined Apple in 1999 when the company took over Raycer Graphics, has become a highly-recognized figure after being featured in many Mac and iDevice keynote videos and will be leaving his post after leading Mac hardware engineering since 2005, iPhone and iPod hardware engineering since 2010, and iPad hardware engineering since the tablet's debut.

“Bob has been an instrumental part of our executive team, leading the hardware engineering organization and overseeing the team that has delivered dozens of breakthrough products over the years,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook. “We are very sad to have him leave and hope he enjoys every day of his retirement.”

Along with the popular MacBook Air line of thin-and-light laptops, Mansfield oversaw the development of Apple's all-in-one iMac desktop.

Replacing Mansfield is Dan Riccio who actually joined Apple before the departing executive when he took the role of vice president of Product Design in 1998.

“Dan has been one of Bob’s key lieutenants for a very long time and is very well respected within Apple and by the industry,” Cook said. “Our hardware engineering team is the best engineering team on earth and will not miss a beat during the transition.”