A company as big as Apple is always going to attract top notch talent and the company's latest acquisition is no different. Apple today announced that Angela Ahrendts, most recently the CEO of fashion house Burberry, is the newest Senior VP at Apple.
Ahrendts position is a completely new one, created just for her, and she will report directly to CEO Tim Cook. Ahrendts' new job will be overseeing the strategic direction, expansion and operation of Apple's retail stores (both brick and mortar and online). The news follows Apple's hiring of CEO and President of Yves-Saint Laurent, Paul Deneve, this past summer. Curiously, Deneve is also a retail guy, having led YSL's retail operation, but he wasn't hired to lead retail. Instead Apple said he would be working on 'special projects.'
"I have wanted one person to lead both of these teams for some time because I believe it will better serve our customers, but I had never met anyone whom I felt confident could lead both until I met Angela," wrote in an email to 9to5Mac.
Apple said today that Ahrendts is responsible for leading Burberry through a 'period of outstanding growth.' In reality, Ahrendts joined Burberry at a critical time in the company's history when the brand 'Burberry' was losing value. Credited with turning the company around, she also led the company's digital strategy and saw sales at the company increase to about $3.2 billion while she worked there.
No word on how much Apple is paying Ahrendts, but she was last year named the highest-paid person on the FTSE 100. Business Insider reports her pay packet last year totaled $27 million. She is due to start at Apple in 2014.
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