Carol Surface is reportedly stepping in as Apple’s new Chief People Officer, the company’s term for head of human resources.
She’s taking over part of the responsibilities of Deirdre O’Brien who was previously both the HR chief and in charge of managing Apple’s retail store business.
Apple gets People head
Combining the HR head with the retail chief makes a certain amount of sense — a majority of Apple’s 150,000+ employees work in the brick-and-mortar stores. But managing both is two big jobs for one person to handle. Deirdre O’Brien doesn’t have shoulder that double load, and is no longer SVP of Retail + People.
Carol Surface is taking over as chief people officer, according to Bloomberg. CEO Tim Cook told Apple employees the news via memo. Previously she was Chief Human Resources Officer at Medtronic, where she worked since 2013. Before then, she was head of HR at Best Buy and worked in the HR department at PepsiCo.
Surface is scheduled to start at Apple in March, and will report directly to Cook. Deirdre O’Brien will stay on to manage Apple retail.
