It hasn’t been long since Apple appointed Carol Surface as its first chief people officer, and surprisingly, she is already exiting the firm. It is rather unusual for a senior executive to leave after such a short stint at Apple.
It was only in Februrary 2023 that Apple had announced her appointment as the first CPO in a major executive reshuffle. The trillion dollar conglomerate had chosen the then former Medtronic EVP and CHRO to take on the responsibilities of the HR department from Deirdre O’Brien, who had continued in her role as head of retail operations. The employees had been informed of this move by Tim Cook, CEO, Apple via an official memo .
Surface, a tenured HR professional, had come to Apple with a rich work experience of over 20 years. Before Medtronic she had worked with Best Buy as EVP and CHRO for almost 4 years though her longest stint was with PepsiCo, where her last-held position was that of CPO- Asia, Africa and Middle-East.
Now, employees have been informed of Surface’s departure from a role that was reportedly created for her. Her responsibilities, including recruitment, inclusion, diversity and HR for a 1.6 lakh strong workforce will once again be shouldered by Deirdre O’Brien, who had been looking after these areas before Surface’s arrival, in addition to the retail stores.
As per media reports, Luca Maestri, Apple’s chief financial officer, Dan Riccio, senior engineering executive and Matt Fischer, head of App Store, are also set to quit their roles. Maestri will, however, continue to supervise certain areas, including real estate and information systems.
