Box executive Karen Appleton joins Apple to bolster enterprise team

Apple's latest attempt at boosting its enterprise credentials is reportedly a new hire, Karen Appleton, formerly a long-time executive with cloud storage and collaboration service Box.

Appleton announced her departure from Box last week via Medium, but only confirmed her new employer in a Monday Facebook post, according to Re/code. Sources told the site about the enterprise connection, but couldn't offer any further details on Appleton's role.

She did, however, join Box in 2007 as just its eighth hire, becoming the company's senior VP for industries. She also spearheaded Box.org, which made the company's services available to non-profits for free or at low cost.

Traditionally Apple has treated enterprise as a secondary concern, preferring to target the general public. The company has increasingly cozied up to enterprise customers since 2014, when it first began partnering with IBM on iOS apps. In January 2015 it picked up a senior VP from HP, John Solomon, who was reportedly made a lynchpin in improving enterprise sales.

Apple's position in the enterprise world has been helped by "bring your own device" policies at many employers, letting workers choose Apple devices such as iPhones where a platform-exclusive app or service isn't essential. Some organizations will, of course, mandate Apple devices for various reasons.