Apple has lost one of its key iPad and Mac executives, Rita Lane, who has retired from the company, according to her public LinkedIn profile highlighted by Mark Gurman of 9to5Mac. Her role at Apple as Vice President of Operations was a significant one.
As such, she was instrumental in helping manage Apple’s supply chain and manufacturing for iPads, Macs and Mac accessories. Lane worked under the supervision of Apple’s Senior Vice President of Operations, Jeff Williams, who took over from the previous op-chief Tim Cook, now the Apple CEO…
Gurman postulates that even though her retirement marks a significant loss for Apple, the firm “likely has other experienced operations managers” who could fill her role.
Apple has yet to name her successor.
According to Business Insider, Lane was a Tim Cook disciple and one of Apple’s highest ranking women. The Apple CEO poached Lane from Motorola back in 2008, where she served as Senior Vice President of supply chain and operations.
“Lane works on the operations side of things for Apple,” the publication wrote in July of 2011. “Not as sexy as working on designing iPads, but equally important”.
Apple in the post-Jobs era did lose some of its high-ranked executives.
Some watchers have said that the assumed executive exodus points at the managerial problems at the company, though Apple at the same time has been hiring a bunch of new engineers and executives left and right.
Last November, Apple lost its key engineer for iOS interfaces, Henri Lamiraux, who also retired. He started as a Mac software engineer in the early 90′s, and joined Scott Forstall’s iPhone OS team in 2005.