Apple's hardware engineering head is promoting three executives to VP level: Why this is important for the company

Apple has seen a bunch of departures in recent months, leaving room on its vice president roster. As per a report by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, hardware engineering head John Ternus is promoting three of his deputies to VP level – the highest title at the company below the group of senior vice presidents that report directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook .

According to Gurman, almost every October Apple promotes a handful of executives to the vice president level – which it likes to cap at about 100. Hardware engineering executive Dan Riccio, procurement chief Dan Rosckes, App Store head Matt Fischer and HR leaders Surface and Gehring have either left or are leaving soon.

“This month, hardware engineering head John Ternus is promoting three of his deputies to the vice president level: Richard Dinh, Dave Pakula and Donny Nordhues. Dinh becomes the VP of product design for the iPhone and related programs; Pakula is now the VP of product design for the iPad, Apple Watch, audio products, input devices, soft goods and the company’s China-based Mac teams; and Nordhues becomes the VP of program management for the hardware engineering organisation,” Gurman said, citing a memo sent to Apple’s engineering group.

Upcoming iPhones “most ambitious in the product’s history”
In the memo, Ternus said that Dinh is in charge of the future iPhone road map, and called the company’s upcoming models the “most ambitious in the product’s history.” He added that Dinh “continues to help drive an exciting future for this iconic product line.”

On Nordhues, Tetanus said that he “spearheaded cross-functional initiatives to drive significant cost-saving opportunities without impacting product ambition” and that Pakula has been “instrumental” to Apple’s future road map.

Notably, all these executives have previously been promoted to larger roles over the past year as a part of shake-up in the hardware engineering group. Moreover, Ternus got a promotion of sorts of his own earlier this month, taking over the Vision Products Group and its more than 2,000 staffers.