Despite a wave of rumours, Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware technologies, has made it clear he has no intention of leaving the company.
The speculation triggered genuine concern online, given Srouji’s key role in shaping Apple’s silicon strategy and spearheading the ARM-based M-series revolution that reshaped the Mac lineup and set a new course for Apple’s hardware trajectory.
His reassurance, however, doesn’t change the broader picture.
Apple has seen a notable amount of executive turnover in 2025. Some long-standing leaders have retired, others have been recruited by competitors, and several transitions were deliberately initiated as Apple restructured to strengthen its position in AI.
Alan Dye: Departs Apple After 19 Years, Joins Meta as Chief Design Officer
Recently, Bloomberg reported that Alan Dye, who has served as the head of Apple’s user interface (UI) design team since 2015, has now been ‘poached’ by Meta.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, the report added that Apple is replacing Dye with Stephen Lemay, a longtime UI designer at the company.
Meta is reportedly creating a new design studio and appointing Dye to lead the design of hardware, software and AI integration for its UI.
Dye was instrumental in defining the look and the feel of Apple’s most recent software products. As per his LinkedIn profile, he has been a part of Apple since 2006.
John Giannandrea: Stepped Down After 7 Years Leading AI Strategy, To Retire in 2026
Apple announced that John Giannandrea, senior vice president for machine learning and AI strategy, stepped down from his role in December and moved into an advisory position ahead of his planned retirement in Spring 2026.
Apple said Giannandrea had been responsible for building out Apple’s modern AI organisation since joining the company in 2018, overseeing foundation models, search and knowledge, core ML research and AI infrastructure.
The remaining parts of his organisation were redistributed to Sabih Khan and Eddy Cue, while Apple hired Amar Subramanya—previously a senior AI leader at Microsoft and Google—to assume the role of vice president of AI and report directly to Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering.
Jeff Williams: Retires After 26 Years, Steps Down as COO
In July, Apple announced that Jeff Williams will step down as chief operating officer as part of a long-planned transition, with Sabih Khan taking over the role. Williams will continue reporting to CEO Tim Cook until the former’s retirement, slated later in 2025, while still overseeing Apple’s design team, Apple Watch and Health initiatives.
Williams spent 27 years at the company, shaping its global supply chain, leading supplier responsibility programmes, and playing key roles in launching the iPod, iPhone and Apple Watch. His transition marks one of the most consequential leadership handovers at Apple in recent years.
Robby Walker: Leaves AI/Search Team After Long Tenure, Exits in Late 2025
Bloomberg reported that Robby Walker, one of Apple’s senior-most AI executives, left the company in late 2025. Walker had been a direct reportee to John Giannandrea and previously ran Siri, before oversight of the assistant was reassigned to Craig Federighi earlier in the year.
After that shift, he became the senior director responsible for Apple’s Answers, Knowledge and Information (AKI) team and helped build a new AI-powered search system intended to compete with Perplexity and ChatGPT.
The report added that Walker had remained an influential voice inside Apple’s AI organisation despite his responsibilities being gradually reduced, making his exit another meaningful loss for the company’s already strained AI efforts.
Kate Adams: Retiring After 7 Years as General Counsel
Apple confirmed that Kate Adams, who had served as general counsel since 2017, will retire, with her transition extending into late 2026.
Apple said Adams had been a central figure in shaping the company’s legal strategy, consistently advocating for user privacy and defending Apple’s ability to innovate across contentious regulatory environments.
During her eight-year tenure, she oversaw some of Apple’s most complex legal and policy challenges and later took on interim oversight of the Government Affairs organisation as part of a broader leadership reshuffle.
Apple stated that her responsibilities would ultimately transfer to Jennifer Newstead, who will assume the combined role of SVP, general counsel and government affairs in 2026.
Lisa Jackson: Retiring After 12 Years Leading Environment and Policy Efforts
Apple also announced that Lisa Jackson, vice president for environment, policy and social initiatives, will step down in late January 2026 after more than a decade of leading the company’s sustainability and government-relations work.
Apple noted that Jackson had been instrumental in reducing Apple’s global emissions by over 60% since 2015 and had been a key figure in Apple’s engagements with governments worldwide on issues ranging from privacy to accessibility.
Jackson’s portfolio—spanning climate strategy, environmental programs and social initiatives—became a model for integrating sustainability into Apple’s core operations.
With her departure, the environment and social initiatives groups were reorganised under COO Sabih Khan, completing one of Apple’s most significant policy-leadership transitions of the year.
Ruoming Pang: Departs AI Group, Moves to Meta’s Superintelligence Lab
Ruoming Pang, the manager in charge of Apple’s foundational models team, joined Meta in July after spending four years at the company.
As per a Bloomberg report, Meta offered him a package worth tens of millions of dollars per year.
Pang’s LinkedIn profile shows that he began his role as a ‘distinguished software engineer’ at Apple in 2021, after completing his 15-year tenure at Google.
At Google, he worked on Google Brain’s speech recognition research and the development of leading deep learning frameworks used by TPUs, the company’s in-house hardware
Tom Gunter: Senior LLM Researcher Departs After 8 Years, Joins Meta’s Superintelligence Push
In July, Tom Gunter, one of Apple’s senior-most LLM researchers, left the company after approximately eight years. He joined Meta as an AI research scientist.
Gunter was a key member of Apple’s Foundation Models team and is regarded internally as difficult to replace due to his specialised expertise in large-scale LLM systems.
His departure came amid escalating talent pressure inside Apple’s AI group, as Meta had been offering dramatically higher compensation packages to recruit researchers for its Superintelligence Labs unit.
A Bloomberg report notes that his exit intensified concerns about morale and retention within Apple’s core AI organisation, which has been strained by uncertainty around the company’s shifting Siri and generative-AI strategy.
Ke Yang: Leaves Apple Weeks After Promotion, Joins Meta’s Superintelligence Labs
Ke Yang, the executive recently appointed to lead Apple’s AI-driven web search initiative, left the company in October to join Meta. As per his LinkedIn profile, he spent six years at Apple as the senior director of machine learning.
Reports state that Yang had been appointed only weeks earlier to lead the AKI division—the team responsible for building ChatGPT-like web search features for Siri and for the broader AI reboot Apple planned for early 2026.
Before taking over the AKI group, Yang had led the search-focused components of the team and became a direct report to John Giannandrea following the departure of AKI senior director Robby Walker, both of whom are no longer with Apple.
Jian Zhang: Exits Robotics AI Team to Join Meta’s Robotics Studio
Jian Zhang, Apple’s lead researcher for AI-driven robotics, left the company in September to join Meta’s Robotics Studio. He spent 10 years at Apple as the head of robotics research in AI and machine learning.
According to Bloomberg, Zhang led a small team of academics within Apple’s AI and Machine Learning division, focusing on automation technologies and the role of AI in Apple’s early-stage robotics concepts. These include devices Bloomberg previously described as part of Apple’s long-term hardware pipeline.
At Meta, Zhang moved to a robotics organisation developing hardware and software for next-generation AI-powered devices, reinforcing Meta’s aggressive push to hire Apple’s top AI researchers at the time.
Note: The list above reflects some of the most notable shifts, but they do not represent an exhaustive account of every leadership change.
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