NetworkWorld is reporting that Brett Bilbrey, head of Apple’s Technology Advancement Group, has retired after spending nearly twelve years with the company.
During his tenure at Apple, Bilbrey has contributed to a number of projects and was a prolific inventor whose name can be found on a number of patent filings detailing such inventions as a wireless charging system or a 3D imaging camera for iOS devices.
He is also credited with a recent filing for a dynamic, reconfigurable and touch-sensitive keyboard. Most recently, as of August 2008, Bilbrey was heading up Apple’s Technology Advancement Group. But what exactly does the group do? Read on…
According to NetworkWorld:
In 2004, he started working on consumer products and fostered the creation of the Mac Mini, the Apple TV, and iSight camera technology for both the iMac and Mac portables.
Author Yoni Heisler was able to get in touch with Bilbrey, who detailed his involvement with Apple’s Technology Advanced Group:
As my next role at Apple, I headed up the Technology Advancement Group, where my teams prototyped many projects for Apple. Of course, nothing that I can speak of. All I can offer about the Technology Advancement Group is that it is focused on forward-looking technology that can be deployed in products.
Bilbrey considers himself lucky to have spent a dozen years with Apple, a place where he says he had a “great rise”.
“I had a great ride at Apple,” Bilbrey said. “I’m lucky in that I can retire knowing that folks I have worked with are continuing to turn out great Apple products.”
A number of high-profile engineers and executives have retired since Steve Jobs’s passing on October 5, 2011, including SVP of Hardware Bob Mansfield, VP of iPad and Mac operations Rita Lane and many others.
A brief removal of Jony Ive’s biopic from Apple’s Leadership page earlier in the week was enough to send bloggers in the panic mode and renew speculation that post-Jobs Apple has a retention problem on its hands.
At the same time, Tim Cook’s Apple has seen the company hire new managers and some of the world’s top experts in wearables, biosensing and medical devices.