Apple Updates Corporate Leadership Page
Marcus Mendes reported last week for 9to5 Mac Apple updated its leadership page to include Steve Lemay and Molly Anderson as vice presidents of human interface design and industrial design, respectively. (Also, Joe Rossignol reported for MacRumors SVP of services and health Eddy Cue got a new headshot to boot.) The additions of Lemay and Anderson come not long after former design boss Alan Dye departed for Meta.
At first blush, any adjustments to Apple’s corporate leadership page have ostensibly zero pertinence to accessibility. In my particular case, however, there are layers of relevance. For one thing, longtime environmental and social programs boss Lisa Jackson—whose purview included accessibility—resigned due to retirement. Jackson is someone I’d interacted with several times over the years, on social media and in person whilst at various Apple events. Perhaps the zenith of my almost 13-year journalistic career involves CEO Tim Cook, whom I interviewed for TechCrunch in 2018 for a few brief but utterly exhilarating minutes about the natural confluence of the company’s—and to this day, ongoing—accessibility and educational initiatives.
Lemay and Anderson’s ascension to Apple’s leadership ranks reminded me how, for a while, I used to stoke a feather in my cap I knew, or talked to on- and off-the-record, most everyone listed on that webpage. Besides Cook and Jackson, they include:
Craig Federighi
Greg Joswiak
Phil Schiller
Not bad for someone who, to my extremely humbled knowledge, virtually pioneered covering accessibility in the technology industry as a credibly newsworthy beat.
Relatedly, Cook recently sat down at Apple Park with journalist David Pogue—whose book on Apple came out this week—to discuss, amongst other things, Apple turning 50 next month and, pertinently here, accessibility vis-a-vis technology. Say what you will about Cook’s obsequious choice to gift President Trump a gold bauble, but his comments about empowering me, as well as others in the disability community, is no empty bromide. Apple truly does see accessibility as one of its core values. As I’ve noted here and there over time, it’s long been my understanding from sources that previewing and shipping new and improved accessibility software ranks right up there with the obvious internal imperative to ship a new flagship iPhone each and every year.
Anyway, Pogue’s full conversation with Cook is well worth a watch.
