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Apple Announces Retirement of Bob Mansfield, Senior VP of Hardware Engineering

sad to see him go, but its very understandable. He has worked very hard to make apple what it is today. Im a little jealous, but I hope he enjoys and gets the most out of his retirement.
 
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
 
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!
 
LaWally said:
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
Click to expand...

hmmmmm.

He gave up $100 million to leave 3 years early ?

Something doesn't seem right here
 
Gregintosh said:
The dream in business is to get rich so you can enjoy life. This is what he seems to be doing, so good for him!

Granted, designing products may be fun for a while, but everyone burns out doing the same thing day in and day out. And if you spend all your life in the office, you won't get to enjoy any of the benefits of making all that money.

And you really have to make some good memories and have great experiences to truly live life.

No one on their deathbed has ever said "gee, I wish I spent more time at the office."
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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. He’s certainly an outlier, but

I don’t begrudge the guy a day or dollar, but I won’t be surprised to find him at another company like Rubenstein or doing a start-up like Fadell.
 
fiveainone said:
hmm.. retiring so young? forced retirement? ;)
Click to expand...

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.
 
Sad to see him go, I loved the videos where he'd talk about the new hardware advances in a product. Can't say I blame him for wanting to retire early though. If I had the money I'd quit my job today.
 
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chrmjenkins said:
He was just the next most qualified, most likely. The fact that he was the head of engineering for a media consumption device does not mean that's the only thing he comprehends or will be competent at. It also seems likely to me that the head of iphone engineering probably stayed in place to have laser focus on the end of the next iphone's design cycle and the next iphone going forward given the competition in that market segment is much stiffer for apple.
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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.
 
Peace said:
hmmmmm.

He gave up $100 million to leave 3 years early ?

Something doesn't seem right here
Click to expand...

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.
 
Peace said:
Good luck Bob.


"the role will be transitioned to Dan Riccio, Apple's vice president of iPad Hardware Engineering, over several months"


This has me wondering if Apple truly is becoming an iToy company.
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Riccio was formerly vice president of Mac hardware before becoming head of the iPad division.

He's well rounded.
 
Peace said:
hmmmmm.

He gave up $100 million to leave 3 years early ?

Something doesn't seem right here
Click to expand...

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. :apple:
 
research said:
http://investor.apple.com/sec.cfm

The filings detail grants of 150,000 shares for each of six senior vice president falling under the SEC's definition of directors, officers, and principal stockholders: general counsel Bruce Sewell; senior vice president of Operations Jeffrey Williams; worldwide product marketing SVP Philip Schiller; chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer; hardware engineering SVP Robert Mansfield; and iOS software SVP Scott Forstall.

At current market prices, 150,000 shares would be worth $60 million, but grants don't begin to vest until June of 2013, and the second half of the grant isn't available until March 2016, contingent upon the executives staying with Apple over the next half decade.
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Is he giving up hundreds of millions of dollars by retiring right now? If so, why?

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.

News Release said:
the role will be transitioned to Dan Riccio, Apple’s vice president of iPad Hardware Engineering, over several months. The entire hardware engineering team will continue to report to Mansfield until his departure.
Click to expand...
Maybe by several months they mean 11-12 months?

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.
 
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