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Apple Announces Retirement of Bob Mansfield, Senior VP of Hardware Engineering
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He must be in a hurry to get out.
According to the last paragraph of the linked MR story from February of this year, he is walking away from two restricted stock grants that he would have been eligible to receive had he stayed through 2016, which were valued at $114M at the time of the story.
Linked Story
According to the last paragraph of the linked MR story from February of this year, he is walking away from two restricted stock grants that he would have been eligible to receive had he stayed through 2016, which were valued at $114M at the time of the story.
Linked Story
What do you reckon Apple gives it's high level employees when they leave after several years? I mean I know he gets the stock etc, but do you think they get Gold Macs? Or iPhones?
I'll miss when he does that little circular motion with his hands on product videos and that his surname is a small town near me. Enjoy retirement Bob!
hmmmmm.
He gave up $100 million to leave 3 years early ?
Something doesn't seem right here
I DESIGN HARDWARE IN A VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER!!! (apologies for all caps, but Chris Farley lived his life with the caps lock on....)I wish Chris Farley -err I mean Bob all the best
I disagree. The dream is to find something you love to do and an environment that enables you to excel Truly excellent people thrive on the challenge, the money is secondary. Steve exemplified this, working through cancer until weeks before he passed away. Hes certainly an outlier, but
I dont begrudge the guy a day or dollar, but I wont be surprised to find him at another company like Rubenstein or doing a start-up like Fadell.
hmm.. retiring so young? forced retirement?
could be, a company almost never says they booted an exec for a negative reason. Unless the story comes out in the press (or court).
But eh, either way he is smiling on his way to the bank.
One correction -- iPad is not just a media consumption device. If you think that, then you either do not own one or you not using it to its full potential.
Incidentally, Mansfield got his BSEE degree in 1982 so that makes him roughly 52 years old (assuming he graduated from college at 22). I think retiring at 52 when you are a multi-multi-millionaire makes sense. For all we know, Bob would like to spend some time with his kids and grandkids or pursuing other talents he might have.
Well, how much money does anyone really need once they can live extremely comfortably and provide the same for their family? I'm sure Steve Jobs would have passed on $100 million of surplus cash in the bank for another 3 years in a heartbeat (though in his case it'd probably be so he could continue working!). If I had $70 million+ already, the mere promise of yet more money alone wouldn't be a good enough reason to stay on.
Something seems very right indeed here to me, good luck to the guy.
Riccio was formerly vice president of Mac hardware before becoming head of the iPad division.
He's well rounded.
swingerofbirch
macrumors 68040
I'm on my lunch break from a pretty stressful wage job when I saw this, and I read how much money he's made off of stock, and my instant thought was: white sand beaches, clear blue waters, yachts. Of course I would retire, hehe. It made me relax for a split second imagining it all.
Could be health related. Can you imagine the stress of that position?
Stay 3 more and not see your grandchildren grow up, or leave now and help them on their way? Pretty simple to me.
Is he giving up hundreds of millions of dollars by retiring right now? If so, why?research said:
BTW $114m on 2-1-12 ($456) would be worth about $142m today ($569) in a very down market for AAPL. Some folks claim AAPL will be over $1000 in the relevant time frame so $250m. Working 3 more years is a tiny price to pay for those earnings, so something is up.
Either it is a personal problem or there is a separation agreement we have not heard about yet where he retains some or all of his options, or like Steve he really doesn't care about money at all.
BTW the math is 75,000 shares on June 2013, a full year from now. At about $600 per share that is $45m.
Maybe by several months they mean 11-12 months?News Release said:
http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-05-02/tech/31534842_1_mercury-news-mansfields-current-laws
Rocketman
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I liked watching Bob Mansfield's appearances in apple videos because he is more like me (an overweight computer nerd style dude), and less like the other apple leadership (skinny health nuts with california accents or openly weird like Jobs). Not a slam on Jobs, but he would stand out even working at a Taco Bell!!
I thought perhaps he was being edged out too...but he's independently wealthy, and he's young enough to work again in the future. Perhaps start up a new Thermostat company with Jonny Ive, just to stick it to the other thermostat apple guy. The world is his oyster, but I'll miss seeing his appearances.
I don't remember exactly but I recall being surprised by Bob's proximity to Steve's widow at the Apple memorial thing (he was right next to her, either sitting or maybe just milling around). Anyway, he's either completing a last thing (iphone5 launch, rMBP) before retiring or perhaps he's being edged out in a friendly fashion (as friendly as such things can be).
Nothing is forever, and eventually the entire leadership team will leave...either thru retirement, quitting, or dying in the saddle. Given how Woz is managed (seems like he's tolerated with a fake "universal" key but kept isolated), I'm unsure if Apple would tolerate having "emeritus" folks hanging around (even if they were no longer productive enough to sit at the big table).
Nobody spends this much time thinking about senior leadership folks (except CEOs maybe) of other tech companies...for this apple is special I guess. The only other VP level exec I track is the guy who's SOny's "VP of BluRay Superiority". With a stick.
I thought perhaps he was being edged out too...but he's independently wealthy, and he's young enough to work again in the future. Perhaps start up a new Thermostat company with Jonny Ive, just to stick it to the other thermostat apple guy. The world is his oyster, but I'll miss seeing his appearances.
I don't remember exactly but I recall being surprised by Bob's proximity to Steve's widow at the Apple memorial thing (he was right next to her, either sitting or maybe just milling around). Anyway, he's either completing a last thing (iphone5 launch, rMBP) before retiring or perhaps he's being edged out in a friendly fashion (as friendly as such things can be).
Nothing is forever, and eventually the entire leadership team will leave...either thru retirement, quitting, or dying in the saddle. Given how Woz is managed (seems like he's tolerated with a fake "universal" key but kept isolated), I'm unsure if Apple would tolerate having "emeritus" folks hanging around (even if they were no longer productive enough to sit at the big table).
Nobody spends this much time thinking about senior leadership folks (except CEOs maybe) of other tech companies...for this apple is special I guess. The only other VP level exec I track is the guy who's SOny's "VP of BluRay Superiority". With a stick.
I never watch keynotes... have other things to do. But I got that from his picture. Sure looks like a fun guy!
