
Senior VP Bob Mansfield removed from Apple's leadership page - cheeyoonlee
http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/
======
hga
Geeze, I'm reminded of Kremlinology; Wikipedia
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kremlinology](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kremlinology))
puts it well:

" _During the Cold War, lack of reliable information about the country forced
Western analysts to "read between the lines" and to use the tiniest tidbits,
such as the removal of portraits, the rearranging of chairs, positions at the
reviewing stand for parades in Red Square...._"

~~~
gojomo
Cupertinology?

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taspeotis
From MacRumors:

> According to Reuters reporter Poornima Gupta, "Bob Mansfield is no longer on
> Apple's exec team but will remain at Apple working on special projects
> reporting to Cook."

> ...

> Last year, Apple announced that Mansfield would be retiring, but several
> months later announced he would instead be staying at the company. Later, it
> leaked that Tim Cook had faced an "insurrection" after Mansfield announced
> his retirement, and Cook gave him an extremely generous benefits package.

So he's moved on to whatever special arrangement has been made for him?

[http://www.macrumors.com/2013/07/28/apple-senior-vice-
presid...](http://www.macrumors.com/2013/07/28/apple-senior-vice-president-
bob-mansfield-removed-from-leadership-webpage/)

------
PhasmaFelis
When I clicked on "Senior VP Bob Mansfield removed from Apple's leadership
page", I was sort of expecting some kind of speculation on why Bob Mansfield
was removed, what it might mean for Apple, maybe even a clue as to who exactly
Bob Mansfield is and what he does at Apple. Instead I got a link to the
leadership page. See, he's not there!

"Senior VP Bill the Cat removed from Apple's leadership page" would've carried
just as much information.

~~~
wging
Here is a page mirrored at archive.org, now 404ing on Apple's website, that
will provide at least a little more information on Bill the Cat.

[http://web.archive.org/web/20130723144507/http://www.apple.c...](http://web.archive.org/web/20130723144507/http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/bob-
mansfield.html)

According to
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Mansfield](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Mansfield),
he was retiring as of 13 months ago but stayed on for some reason, possibly
because of Scott Forstall's departure. Given the circumstances, his may have
been an interim role while Apple searched for a long-term solution.

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sengstrom
Not knowing anything about Apple leadership in the first place I was struck by
the male homogenity on that page.

~~~
padraigm
Yeah, my first thought was "wow look at all these old white guys". If the
pictures weren't right next to each other I'd probably have trouble telling
any two of them apart.

~~~
sjtgraham
If you think that's an acceptable thing to say, :%s/white/any other race/g and
re-read your comment.

~~~
jlgaddis
Does everything have to be racist nowadays?

I'm an "old white guy". I wasn't offended.

~~~
sjtgraham
That's great, I'm happy for you. However, implying that people of the same
race look alike as to be indistinguishable from one another is offensive to a
lot of people.

~~~
jlgaddis
A lot of old white men _do_ look alike. It's not racist, it's an observation.

~~~
ravisarma
I suggest @jlgaddis's responses highlight an important distinction between
"offensive" (the word used by @sjtgraham) and "racist". While it is always a
good rule of thumb to seek not to offend, often we might waive that to aid
humour or to bring out a point. In this case I suspect the OP (OC?) was trying
to mock (in turn to highlight the uniformity of the Apple leadership team), by
clever reversal, the common occurrence of some white people's inability to
differentiate between people of other colours (I am brown, my sons at school
are frequently referred to by names of other Indian kids, some who have
graduated and left the school 3-4 years ago; that's hardly racist, or even
offensive, especially in comparison to the lack of women and minority in
positions of leadership and power).

------
mrpollo
_taken from the wayback machine_

    
    
      Bob Mansfield
      Senior Vice President, Mac Hardware Engineering
    
      Bob Mansfield is Apple's senior vice president of Technologies, reporting to CEO Tim Cook.
    

[http://web.archive.org/web/20130723083752/http://www.apple.c...](http://web.archive.org/web/20130723083752/http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/)

------
cheeyoonlee
Has someone _accidentally_ deleted the profile of one of Apple's most
important figureheads or has Mr. Mansfield decided to step aside?

~~~
JonFish85
Another option could be a transition into a less-visible role prior to his
expected departure date of sometime in 2014....

~~~
balanceiskey15
Was this expected? I figured after he returned he'd be sticking around for a
bit.

~~~
JonFish85
I believe he was committed to staying "at least" through 2014. I'm not sure of
the details of it all, of course. I just thought it could be a possibility--it
would be odd for him to leave less than a year after being convinced to stick
around for a bit (in my opinion; I don't know the guy.)

------
samplonius
He is retiring. I guess several months turned into one month. Or, you don't
want a lame duck VP on your leadership page. Probably a bit of both.

[http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2012/06/28Bob-Mansfield-
Appl...](http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2012/06/28Bob-Mansfield-Apples-
Senior-Vice-President-of-Hardware-Engineering-to-Retire.html)

------
AdamN
What about Andrea Jung on the board? No hyperlink for her profile and she was
fired as CEO of Avon last year
([http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-05/avon-executive-
chai...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-05/avon-executive-chairman-
andrea-jung-to-step-down-at-year-end.html)).

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MaysonL
[http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_23751590/apples-
bob-m...](http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_23751590/apples-bob-
mansfield-no-longer-executive-team)

He's moving into "special projects", reporting to Cook.

------
supercoder
Bob didn't run the developer portal did he ?

~~~
veemjeem
He did hardware.

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notloggedin
He was essentially pulled out of the retirement to stay on for a while so this
is not that surprising.

------
eminemence
Did anyone notice the only person not smiling in this page? Seems to be really
sad while taking that pic.

~~~
shin_lao
There are several persons not smiling on the page.

