In April, Apple's Bob Mansfield made the list of highest paid execs in the United States. His 2012 compensation for his role as Senior Vice President of Technologies at Apple was enough to snag him one of the top five spots on the S&P 500 list. However, it seems Mansfield is no longer a senior VP at Apple.
Mansfield's profile disappeared from Apple's online executive listings over the weekend with no explanation from Apple. It didn't take long for the word of the change to get around, and soon people were wondering whether Bob had left Cupertino or if it was just an error. Apple today confirmed that Mansfield is stepping down from his role as SVP of Technologies but the company maintains that he will remain at Apple despite the change.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Apple spokesperson Katie Cotton said:
"Bob will no longer be on Apple’s executive team, but he will continue to work on special projects."
What these special projects are is anyone's guess, but this isn't the first time Mansfield has made efforts to step back from day-to-day operations at Apple. Last year, Apple announced that Bob would be retiring from his role as VP of Hardware Engineering and that he would be replaced by Dan Riccio, VP of iPad Hardware Engineering. However, those plans were shelved in August of 2012 when Cupertino revealed that Mansfield would be staying and reporting to Tim Cook.
Mansfield joined Apple in 1999 when the company acquired Raycer Graphics. At the time, Mansfield was VP of Engineering at Raycer. As Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, Mansfield led the Mac hardware engineering division for seven years (since 2005), iPhone and iPod hardware engineering for two years and iPad hardware engineering since its inception.
