Apple has added a new face to its executive leadership team. The company has named Carol Surface its new Chief People Officer, who joins Apple after nearly a decade at the medical device company Medtronic. Surface is Apple’s first-ever Chief People Officer.
The news was first reported by Bloomberg, with Tim Cook reportedly making the announcement to Apple employees in a memo this week. Surface will officially start at Apple in March and will report directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook.
As part of this change, Apple is realigning the role of Deirdre O’Brien, a 30-year Apple veteran who has been Apple’s senior vice president of Retail + People since 2019. Once Surface begins at Apple in March, Apple will remove the human resources responsibilities from O’Brien’s role, allowing her to focus full-time on retail.
O’Brien was initially promoted to VP of People in 2017 after previously serving as the company’s vice president of worldwide sales and operations. She added retail to her responsibilities in 2019 after Angela Ahrendts departed Apple.
Carol Surface joins Apple after a 10-year stint at the medical device company Medtronic as an executive vice president in charge of human resources. Prior to that, she spent three and a half years in that same role at Best Buy as well as over a decade in human resources and personnel at PepsiCo. She received a Bachelor of arts in psychology from Castleton University and a PhD in industrial and organizational psychology from Central Michigan University.
