departures

Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering Bob Mansfield is retiring, the company said today.

Mansfield, who has been with Apple since 1999, will be replaced by Dan Riccio, Apple's current vice president of iPad hardware engineering.

"Bob has been an instrumental part of our executive team, leading the hardware engineering organization and overseeing the team that has delivered dozens of breakthrough products over the years," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. "We are very sad to have him leave and hope he enjoys every day of his retirement."

Apple says the … Read more

Google exec Andy Rubin wants to put rumors of his impending departure from the Web giant to rest.

The Android chief today turned to Google+, his company's social networking experiment, to dispel rumors that he planned to jump ship to a small startup called CloudCar.

"Cloudcar are a group of friends who I give free office space to in my incubator in Los Altos," Rubin said on his Google+ account. "Revel Touch (Mar Hershenson's company: www.reveltouch.com) is another cool company that shares this space. I'm not joining either one and I don'… Read more

Apple's vice president of mobile advertising for Apple's iAd platform is leaving the company.

Andy Miller, who joined Apple with the company's acquisition of Quattro Wireless, is leaving to become a general partner at venture firm Highland Capital. That's the same firm that helped fund Quattro Wireless, the advertising company that Miller was the co-founder and CEO of, the report notes.

An Apple spokesman confirmed that Miller plans to leave the company, though did not provide additional details on his departure.

Miller's departure, which was first reported by AllThingsD, comes at a time when the … Read more

The senior product manager for Apple's iCloud service has left the company to take a spot as vice president of product at health education company HealthTeacher.

John Herbold, who joined Apple in early 2006, was most recently the senior product manager for iCloud, having previously worked on MobileMe.

HealthTeacher announced the news of his joining the company this morning, saying that Herbold will be helping to extend its digital efforts.

"John has a proven background of engaging audiences across the devices we use to learn, play, socialize and be entertained," said Scott McQuigg, CEO of HealthTeacher, in … Read more

Allison Johnson, Apple's vice president of worldwide marketing, is said to be leaving her post at the company to co-found a new marketing firm.

All Things Digital reports that Johnson, who came to Apple from Hewlett-Packard back in 2005, is still in the process of negotiating her exit.

Johnson's new gig is said to be co-founding a new marketing firm with former Facebook PR executive Brandee Barker.

This would mark Johnson's second departure from Apple, where she had worked previously. During the 1990s, Johnson held the position of director of media relations both at IBM then later … Read more

Digg co-founder Kevin Rose is focusing his efforts in a new direction.

Following a report on TechCrunch earlier today that said Rose had resigned from his post at Digg, Rose confirmed via Twitter that he was indeed at work on a new project, but that he'd "continue advising Digg / on the board of directors," as well as taping episodes of Diggnation.

As for that next project, Rose said in a tweet that it would be revealed "soon."

Rose had relinquished his post as Digg's interim CEO in August of last year after filling in … Read more

Adding to the list of recent departures, Microsoft has lost the principal development manager of its Bing search engine to commerce giant eBay.

According to All Things Digital, Scott Prevost who joined Microsoft as part of the Powerset acquisition in 2008, has left to become the VP of product management for eBay's search tool. He's joined by now former Facebook research scientist Dennis DeCoste, who will be eBay's director of research. Together, the pair are said to be working on improving the relevancy of eBay's built-in search tool.

A Microsoft representative confirmed Prevost's departure and … Read more

Microsoft today announced that Bob Muglia, the president of its server and tools business, is stepping down and will be leaving the company sometime this summer.

In a memo to Microsoft employees, CEO Steve Ballmer said that Muglia will stick around for the transition as Ballmer does "an internal and external search for the new leader," and that Muglia would "complete additional projects for me."

The company would not comment on what Muglia plans to do next.

Muglia joined Microsoft in 1988. Before heading up the company's server and tools business, he was its senior … Read more

Finally, a funny from Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, confirming what BoomTown reported yesterday about the departures of three top execs in an e-mail memo to the company's employees worldwide.

It just went out and began: "Carol from the foxhole here."

Actually, she's in Georgia. In the memo, Bartz said she expects to announce the new head of the Americas region for Yahoo to replace outgoing chief Hilary Schneider before the end of the year.

The company also released a similar statement, which is below, adding that Yahoo SVP of North America partnerships and business development Raymond Stern … Read more