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These engineers and tech execs want to create a peaceful lunar settlement
A group of Silicon Valley tech executives and engineers want to create a peaceful, multinational lunar settlement. According to Bloomberg, the San Francisco-based Open Lunar Foundation plans to invest in hardware "to accelerate the exploration and settlement of the moon." And it's committed to creating a kind of cooperative that wouldn't be tied to one particular country or billionaire.
Hugo Barra leaves Xiaomi and will return to Silicon Valley
VP Hugo Barra announced on Facebook that he'll be leaving Xiaomi and returning to Silicon Valley. Barra, who became a popular figure in the company both at home in Beijing and abroad, was a star at Google's Android division prior to his tenure at Xiaomi. He called his time in Beijing "the greatest and most challenging adventure of my life," and said he feels he's leaving Xiaomi in a "good place on its global expansion path." At the same time, he said that "living in such a singular environment has taken a huge toll on my life and started affecting my health."
BMW's key EV executives depart for Chinese startup
Several key executives behind BMW's well-regarded i8 and i3 electric vehicles have been hired away by a little-known China-based company called Future Mobility. The German automaker confirmed to Engadget that "BMW i" division head designer Benoit Jacob, head of product management Henrik Wenders and powertrain developer Dirk Abendroth have departed. They'll be joining Carsten Breitfeld, who left BMW last month to become CEO of Future Mobility Corp. The Chinese startup is funded in part by Tencent Holdings, a $200 billion company with divisions ranging from gaming to messaging.
Samsung wants to swap its rigid culture for a startup ethos
Samsung, the largest mobile and memory chip company in the world, says it plans to change its autocratic ways and act more like a start-up. In a statement, it says "we aim to reform our internal culture, execute as quickly as a startup company and push towards open communication and continuously innovate," according to Reuters. To show it's not kidding, the company held a special "Startup Samsung" ceremony at its South Korean headquarters and had staff pledge to reduce their hierarchical ways, endless meetings and insane work hours. Executives also signed an agreement to remake the corporate culture.
Apple updates executive profiles page with more execs and diversity
Apple today added a number of new executive profiles to the Press Info part of its website, featuring a number of execs who haven't been in the limelight before. Among the additions to the profiles are the smiling group of happy Apple execs seen above, including Paul Deneve (previously CEO of Yves St Laurent), Lisa Jackson (former administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency), Joel Podolny (former dean and professor at the Yale School of Management), Johny Srouji (who led development of Apple's first system-on-a-chip), and Denise Young Smith (led HR for Retail, Worldwide Operations, and Employee Relations teams, now leads all Worldwide Human Resources endeavors). It's impressive to read the biographies of each member of Apple's talented executive team, and it's reassuring to shareholders and employees alike to see who is behind the decisions that direct the company's day-to-day business.
Angela Ahrendts begins her tenure as Apple's retail chief this week
Apple announced this past October that it had tapped Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts to serve as the company's Senior VP of Retail. While there was some speculation as to just when Ahrendts would specifically assume her post, Tim Cook announced during Apple's earnings conference call last week that Ahrendts begins her tenure at Apple this week. "I'm looking forward to welcoming our new retail and online leader, Angela Ahrendts, who will be joining Apple's executive team next week," Cook said. Before her tenure at Burberry, Ahrendts spent time at both Liz Claiborne and Donna Karan. Clearly, Ahrendts will be bringing an impressive amount of fashion and luxury retail experience to the table. Over and above that, Ahrendts as Burberry CEO seemed rather adept at fusing the worlds of fashion and technology, leveraging the latter to help propel the former. Apple's initial press release announcing the hire described Ahrendts' job duties as follows: Ahrendts will have oversight of the strategic direction, expansion and operation of both Apple retail and online stores, which have redefined the shopping experience for hundreds of millions of customers around the world. Apple retail stores set the standard for customer service with innovative features like the Genius Bar, Personal Setup and One to One personal training to help customers get the most out of their Apple products. For those particularly interested in Ahrendts' rise to prominence, CNET has an interesting in-depth feature on her that you can check out over here.
Apple's search for a new retail head inches forward
For about eight months now, the position of Senior VP of Retail at Apple has remained vacant. Back in October 2012, Apple unceremoniously dismissed John Browett from the position after just seven months on the job. Reports at the time indicated that Browett never quite meshed with the culture at Apple and his efforts to focus more on the bottom line than on customer satisfaction were never well received. Discussing his time at Apple this past March, Browett remarked: Apple is a truly fantastic business. The people are great; they've got great products; it's got a great culture and I loved working there; it's a fantastic business. The issue there was that I just didn't fit within the way they run the business. It was one of those things where you're rejected for fit rather than competency. So while Apple retail stores continue to rake in more money per square foot than any other store on the planet, the company is still actively looking for someone to take Apple retail to even greater heights. According to a recent report in the Wall Street Journal, Apple's search for a new Senior VP of Retail is moving along ever so slowly. Apple's search for a replacement, handled by recruiters Egon Zehnder International, has gone slowly, people familiar with the matter said, and the company has yet to settle on a finalist after interviewing several external candidates. Among those interviewed but rejected as a poor fit were wireless and telecommunications-industry executives, one such person said. A CEO of a privately held retailer in France spurned Apple's overtures, believing it would be hard to change Apple's culture as an outsider, another person said. Interestingly enough, the report relays that Apple isn't considering internal candidates for the position. This of course aligns with reports we previously saw back when Apple was searching for its first replacement for Ron Johnson, namely that Apple is on the lookout for candidates with significant international retail experience.
Bob Mansfield leaves Apple's executive team, will assist Tim Cook
The biography for Bob Mansfield, Apple's senior vice president of technologies, unexpectedly disappeared from Apple's executive web page over the weekend. The removal of Mansfield's biography was first reported by MacRumors, and AllThingsD followed with an official statement from Apple that confirmed Mansfield is no longer part of Apple's executive leadership. Apple refused to comment on the reasons for Mansfield's departure. "Bob is no longer going to be on Apple's executive team, but will remain at Apple working on special projects reporting to [CEO] Tim [Cook]," Apple spokesperson Steve Dowling told AllThingsD. Mansfield announced his resignation from Apple in June 2012 and returned to the company a few months later as its SVP of Technologies. According to AllThingsD, Mansfield was paid handsomely for his return with a package worth more than $2 million a month. Details on Mansfield's reasons for leaving are not known, but his departure from this executive position less than a year later is surprising.
Z2Live picks up former AAA execs, rebrands as Z2
Z2Live is the company behind some really big freemium hits on the iOS App Store, including Battle Nations and Trade Nations. The company has today announced that it's rebranding itself as Z2, dropping the "Live" and premiering a new brand identity on its new website. Beyond the rebranding, Z2 is also announcing a number of additions to its executive team, including some developers formerly from some very large gaming companies. Glen Pryer is joining the company as VP of Operations, and he's a former director of global planning at Blizzard Entertainment and former VP of 38 Studios. Adam Flanders is a new senior VP of sales and marketing, who previously worked with both Glu Mobile and THQ. And Shanis Windland is the new senior director of finance, and formerly worked with Big Fish Games. Those are definitely some notable pickups, and they show that Z2 is doing fairly well at pulling in talent with the few titles it has running so far. The company was originally put together to create a multiplayer community on Apple's iOS platform (similar to OpenFeint and a few other networks that were floating around back then), but since the inception of Trade Nations, it's put together a solid reputation as a studio building popular freemium MMO-style titles. It'll be interesting to see what Z2 has coming up next, given this new spin on the brand, and all of the growth it's experienced lately.
Turbine hires Rolston, game industry veterans for high-level positions
Turbine wants you to know that it has hired a smattering of industry veterans to complement its existing Boston-based development team. Notables include former Elder Scrolls and Kingdoms of Amalur lead Ken Rolston, who steps into Turbine's Director of Design role. Mortal Kombat veteran Alan Villani is Turbine's new VP of Technology and responsible for driving "online engagement and monetization." Former Zynga manager Jai Singh has signed on to oversee Turbine's "online operations hosting and computing infrastructure, technical support, and network operations." Finally, Demetrius Comes, formerly of Petroglyph, is now Turbine's Executive Director of Engineering. [Source: Turbine press release]
Bob Mansfield once again listed as SVP on Apple's site (Updated)
The friendly and familiar face of Apple's Bob Mansfield remained in Apple's gallery of executive portraits in the Apple web site's PR pages, sans title, despite his retirement from the company. Now he's officially de-retired and back in the executive suite. Mansfield was the senior vice president of hardware engineering for many years at Apple, responsible for the technical design of such classic computers as the iMac and the MacBook Air. He announced his retirement from the company in June of this year, and many were surprised earlier this week when it was announced that Mansfield was going to stay on with the company working on "future projects." Mansfield's beauty shot in the executive photo gallery doesn't specify what his new position is; he's simply listed as a senior vice president. Dan Riccio has been named to replace Mansfield in the hardware engineering SVP spot. Update: Post edited to clarify that Mansfield's photo had not been removed; only his title.
Apple promotes pair of execs to Senior VP level, Bob Mansfield to hang around after all
It's a day of upheaval in the boardroom at Apple -- in the good sense. Remember how Hardware Engineering Senior VP Bob Mansfield said he would retire in June? He's had a change of heart and will keep working on future products. Meanwhile, two of the vice presidents who've been mainstays of Apple's recent plans, Mac Software Engineering VP Craig Federighi and Hardware Engineering VP Dan Riccio, have been promoted to Senior VP. All three will report directly to CEO Tim Cook, and both Federighi as well as Riccio will get their first turns at Apple's executive management team. While the shift isn't going to signal a dramatic change in strategy, it's notable that Riccio's role is expanding: he's moving from his earlier iPad focus to overseeing all the hardware Apple makes. We can only guess at what the ultimate goals might be for the new assignments, although we can imagine Apple jumping through hoops to keep a hardware executive as skilled as Mansfield on its side.
AMD exec behind Wii and Xbox 360 graphics jumps the fence to NVIDIA
AMD has been suffering a conspicuous brain drain, with executives like ATI veteran Rick Bergman and CTO Eric Demers crossing over to tangentially or directly competitive companies like NVIDIA and Qualcomm. Chalk up another one for the list -- strategic development VP Bob Feldstein has bounded towards NVIDIA's (literally) greener pastures. The blow cuts deeper than usual through Feldstein's responsibility for graphics in most of the consoles from the past few years: he headed up work behind the Xenos chip in earlier Xbox 360s and the Hollywood core in the Wii, and he likely had some say in the Wii U's video hardware as well. While the staff shuffle won't directly affect AMD's Fusion processors or Radeon cards, it's hard to see much of a positive for AMD's future in video gaming, even in the light of rumors that the next PlayStation and Xbox might use some of Feldstein's work.
Facebook and Walmart to 'deepen' involvement, won't rollback FarmVille prices just yet
The involvement between Facebook and Walmart is about to get a lot cozier than gift cards in aisle three. Facebook says it wants to "deepen" its connection to Walmart and hopes to learn from the big-box retailer's skill in building a long-term business; that's rather important when the social network is still young enough for the ink to be wet on shares from its initial public offering. To that end, Facebook's entire executive team will meet with Walmart at its Arkansas headquarters on July 20th in the hopes the two companies will be singing kumbaya when all is said and done. Knowing that both companies have taken a bruising in their public images from time to time, we can understand why some might be apprehensive about the idea of any tighter collaboration -- not until they can buy FarmVille harvests for 88 cents, at least.
RIM continues the executive shuffle with new COO and CMO
Changes are afoot at Research in Motion. The Canadian smartphone maker today announced the addition of two new names to top executive slots. Former Sony Mobile Communications executive VP Kristian Tear will be taking on the role of the company's chief operating officer. RIM's new chief marketing officer Frank Boulben, meanwhile, comes over from Lightsquared, after having worked for the likes of Vodafone, Vivendi and Orange. The news comes on the heels of word that new CEO Thorsten Heins has been "clearing house" at the ailing phone company.
Ron Johnson, former Apple retail chief, rebuilding Apple staff at JC Penney
Ron Johnson left Apple as head of retail at the beginning of this month to run J.C. Penney, and apparently he's wasting no time rebuilding an Apple-style shop over there. The Wall Street Journal reports that he's aiming to bring both former Apple executives Daniel Walker and Michael Kramer on the staff there, essentially recreating part of the group that ran Apple from the year 2000 to 2005. Walker actually brought Johnson on at Apple, and it seems like the group is coming back together to do at the clothing retail company what they helped to do at Apple Inc. Of course, as Apple fans, we don't really have too much interest in the inner workings of J.C. Penney or what they're trying to do with that company. But it is interesting to think that the principles and ideas that Apple has come up with in its incredibly successful retail program are now floating out to other retail chains and industries. Going to an Apple Store is a pretty singular experience, but what if it wasn't? I'm interested to see a clothing store like J.C. Penney that's put a few of Apple retail's ideas and bits of thinking into play.
Rumor: TERA's Korean development director resigns
If the rumors are true (and we'd like to stress that these are simply rumors as of press time), Bluehole Studio is undergoing something of a shakeup following the less-than-stellar showing of its TERA MMORPG in Korea. Hyun-Kyu Park, TERA's executive director, has reportedly left the development firm due to an as-yet undetermined internal conflict. Our sources in Korea tell us that Park locked horns with other senior Bluehole executives due to his desire to postpone the game's open beta earlier this year. At the time, Park stepped down from his role as TERA's chief producer to become a producer on a forthcoming Bluehole title but is now rumored to have left the firm entirely. TERA launched in Korea on January 25th and Bluehole began merging servers earlier this summer. Massively has contacted En Masse Entertainment, TERA's North American publisher, and is awaiting a response.
A look at Apple's "all-star" executives
Tim Cook, Phil Schiller, Jony Ive, and Steve Jobs are big names at Apple. These top executives are known around the technology industry and around the world for their operational excellence, marketing know-how, design genius and powerful reality distortion fields. While these four men often get credit for much of Apple's success, the company boasts an enviable collection of talented "chiefs" and senior vice presidents who help carve its skyward path. A new gallery from CNN Money takes a brief look at eleven of Apple's all-stars. For avid fans of Apple, some of the names mentioned in CNN Money's gallery may be familiar. But if you don't recognize names like Craig Federighi, Scott Forstall, Bob Mansfield, Ron Johnson, Peter Oppenheimer, Bruce Sewell, Jeff Williams, Eddy Cue, Katie Cotton, Dr. Guy "Bud" Tribble, or Greg Joswiak, this may be a good opportunity to brush up on the men and women who help shape one of the world's most successful companies.
Microsoft shuffling execs to better compete with Apple
Microsoft is reportedly shuffling around its upper brass to better compete against Apple and Google. The company is removing long-serving executives from their positions and promoting senior engineers from areas within the company that are struggling. This move is in response to pressure from Microsoft's Board of Directors, which is looking for the company to move away from the stagnant corporate culture of old and introduce new talent into its executive leadership. The mobile phone division is one group that may benefit from these changes. Though Windows Phone was launched with much fanfare in October 2010, the mobile platform has failed to take off. Microsoft confirmed that it has sold two million licenses for its mobile OS, but this figure represents the number of handsets manufacturers intend to build, not the amount that have landed in the hands of consumers. Quarterly sales figures for the end of 2010 also show that Windows Phone is trailing Android, iOS, BlackBerry and even the aging Windows Mobile. [Via Electronista]
Steve Ballmer looking for a few good engineers for Microsoft management?
Bloomberg's heard a couple whispers that Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer is looking to fill senior product executive roles with engineers. In other words, people who can really understand the products they're planning, pushing, and promoting -- a smart move, if it comes to pass. An announcement could reportedly be made as early as this month alongside a Courier resurgence. (Okay, not really, but let us dream a bit.)
