Roger Fingas
Apple's senior vice president of Operations, Jeff Williams, will be interviewed later this month at the second annual Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, the event's organizers announced on Thursday.
Williams is the man most directly in charge of the Apple supply chain and other day-to-day affairs, but Re/code noted that Williams is also responsible for heading development of the Apple Watch, as well as ResearchKit, which could be moving into DNA-based studies.
The conference, which will take place May 26 to 28, will additionally feature exectutives from companies like CBS, Google, GoPro, and Oculus VR, plus Kleiner Perkins partner Mary Meeker, and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has been outspoken on issues like NSA surveillance and systemic problems with banks.
Much of the Williams talk could center around the Apple Watch. The device was launched only a few weeks ago, and constitutes a new product category for Apple. The company has also been using executive interviews as one of its tools for marketing the Watch, alongside celebrity product placements, multiple preview events, and spreads in fashion magazines.
Apple executives sometimes drop minor hints about product plans during such interviews. Any major revelations, however, aren't expected to happen until Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, which starts June 8.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
3 Comments
Where is Dan Riccio?
[quote name="matrix07" url="/t/186165/apple-operations-head-jeff-williams-to-speak-at-2015-code-conference#post_2720855"]Where is Dan Riccio?[/quote] I am curious about his role. Note that the Watch engineering was given to Jeff Williams. And at the last event the MacBook product video was all Jony Ive. I find that a bit odd considering Riccio is SVP of hardware engineering. Though I remember a story in Bloomberg after it was announced that Bob Mansfield was retiring saying that engineers under Mansfield went to Cook pleading for Mansfield to stay on as they didn't feel Riccio was ready for the job. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-07-29/apple-s-bob-mansfield-shifts-work-to-special-projects [quote]Some of them complained when they were reassigned to Dan Riccio, the senior vice president of hardware engineering, after Mansfield left last June, according to three people familiar with the sequence of events who asked not to be named because the matter is private. The complaints were one reason why Apple CEO Tim Cook asked Mansfield to rejoin the company just two months later. “Bob is the anchor of Apple’s hardware organization,” said Bob Borchers, a former Apple manager. “That’s why it was so important to bring him back.”[/quote]
Though I remember a story in Bloomberg after it was announced that Bob Mansfield was retiring saying that engineers under Mansfield went to Cook pleading for Mansfield to stay on as they didn't feel Riccio was ready for the job.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-07-29/apple-s-bob-mansfield-shifts-work-to-special-projects
Didn't know this. Looks like he's doomed.