Apple Changes the Guard, Holds Annual Shareholders’ Meeting

This year has marked some changes for Apple Computer management: two of its three most prominent executives, Avadis “Avie” Tevanian and Jon Rubenstein have left and their duties need to be passed on to worthy successors.

Tevanian oversaw the development of Mac OS X and Rubenstein supervised much of Macintosh hardware in recent years. Daniel Drew Turner, writer for EWeek, said that “Apple seems to be conscious that no single person—except, perhaps, CEO Steve Jobs himself—is irreplaceable, and that new talent can always be groomed for the future.”

Turner interviewed Apple reporter John Markoff of the New York Times who said, “It’s my sense that Steve [Jobs] has quietly been dealing with the leadership issue at Apple. I believe that he has brought in a layer of thirty-somethings that will be Apple’s next generation. He inspires intense loyalty, and I think despite the fact that he insists the company speak with one voice, that he is busy planning.”

Both Rubenstein and Tevanian were hired by Jobs for his company NeXT Computer, which he founded after leaving Apple in 1985. Turner reported that when Apple bought NeXT in 1996, the three took top positions at Jobs’ old company, “signaling to some that the deal had more been NeXT buying Apple than the other way around.”

When Apple and NeXT became one in late 1996, Tevanian was placed at the head of the Mac OS software division, in charge of developing next generation Macintosh operating systems. “When Avie first arrived at Apple from NeXT,” said Wil Shipley, the CEO of software company Delicious Monster, “he took over software and, seriously, kicked butt.”

“I used to tell everyone who thought Apple was doomed back then, ‘No, it’s going to rock, because Avie Knows How To Ship.’ This was my mantra. The boy knew how to test it, clip it and ship it,” said Shipley. Shipley added that “Avie corralled Apple’s engineers and got them to stop dissing OS X like it was another Copeland or Pink or Taligent or whatever—he got them in line or cut ‘em loose.”

In July 2003, Tevanian shifted his position to become Apple’s chief technology officer, allowing longtime second-in-command Bertrand Serlet to assume his old title of senior vice president of software engineering, according to Turner.

“This will be a seamless handoff,” said Jobs at the time.

Also in October 2005, Apple announced Rubinstein’s forthcoming retirement from senior vice president of the company’s iPod division. Taking his position was Tony Fadell, who joined Apple in 2001 as “the first member of [Apple’s] iPod hardware engineering team,” according to Fadell’s official company biography.
Rubinstein’s resignation went into effect officially April 14, according to Turner. Rubinstein currently has a one-year consulting agreement with Apple. According to the contract’s terms, Rubinstein will make himself available for a limited amount of time per week in exchange for a flat (and undisclosed) fee.

Before Fadell came to Apple, he was the co-founder, chief technology officer and director of engineering of the Mobile Computing Group at Phillips Electronics.
The issue of potential management succession issue took on greater urgency with the disclosure in August 2004 that Jobs had been diagnosed with a rare, but highly curable form of pancreatic cancer.

While by all appearances Jobs has responded well to treatment and his health is stable, the recent departures raise the question of who will lead the company in the future, according to Turner.

In other management news, Apple held its annual shareholders meeting Thursday at the Town Hall Auditorium on the company’s Cupertino, California campus.
Up for re-election are all seven members of the board of directors: Fred Anderson, William Campbell, Millard Drexler, Albert Gore, Steve Jobs, Arthur Levinson and Jerome York. All are expected to be re-elected. Also, it’s expected that Apple will ratify the appointment of KPMG LLP as its independent auditors for the present fiscal year according to MacSimumNews.