Bob Mansfield

Bob Mansfield
Nationality	American
Known for	Senior leadership at Apple Inc.

Bob Mansfield is an American hardware engineer working at Apple, Inc. He was formerly Senior Vice President of Technologies, before leaving that role to focus on unnamed future products.^[1][2] It has been claimed that he supervised the development of the Apple Watch or smart television products.^[3]

Education

Mansfield earned a BSEE degree from the University of Texas in 1982.

Career

Early in his career, he had the positions of senior director at SGI and vice president of engineering at Raycer Graphics, subsequently acquired by Apple in 1999. Following the acquisition, Mansfield stayed on with Apple to fill his new role of senior vice president of Mac Hardware Engineering, overseeing teams that delivered products such as the iMac, MacBook, MacBook Air and iPad.^[4] Bob Mansfield no longer on Apple's exec team, will continue work on special projects.

In August 2010, Mansfield took over the position of Devices Hardware Engineering from the departed Mark Papermaster. Although Apple announced Bob Mansfield's retirement on June 28, 2012,^[5] it was announced on August 27, 2012 that Mansfield would remain at Apple, working on "future projects" and reporting to Tim Cook.^[6]

Apple announced on October 29, 2012 that Mansfield would take on a new role at Apple as Senior Vice President of Technologies. Reports have claimed that Scott Forstall's departure was a key reason for Mansfield's unexpected return from retirement.^[7] On July 28, 2013, roughly 9 months after Mansfield's appointment to Senior Vice President of Technologies, Mansfield's biography was removed from Apple's executive profiles webpage. It was subsequently confirmed by Apple that Mansfield was no longer a part of the executive team, but would "continue to work on special projects under CEO Tim Cook."^[8]

He was heading Apple's car project until 2020.^[9][10] Following Mansfield's departure, Apple's AI executive John Giannandrea^[9] led the project, which was ultimately cancelled in 2024.^[11]

References

1. "After Steve Jobs: Apple's next CEO". Fortune. 2008-11-04. Retrieved August 11, 2010.
2. Cheng, Jacqui (June 28, 2012). "Apple: goodbye hardware engineering head Bob Mansfield, hello Dan Riccio". Ars Technica. Retrieved July 12, 2012.
3. Yarow, Jay. "Meet Bob Mansfield: The $85 Million Apple Executive Who Is Secretly Working On Its Next Major Product". Business Insider.
4. Apple Inc. (2010-08-09). "Apple - Press Info - Bios - Bob Mansfield". Apple Inc. Archived from the original on 2010-07-23. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
5. Apple Inc. (2012-06-28). "Bob Mansfield, Apple's Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, to Retire". Retrieved 2012-06-28.
6. Apple Inc. (27 August 2012). "Craig Federighi, Apple's Vice President of Mac Software Engineering & Dan Riccio, Apple's Vice President of Hardware Engineering Join Apple's Executive Team as Senior Vice Presidents". Retrieved 27 August 2012.
7. Paczkowski, John. "Behind Silicon Valley's Un-Retirement: Why Bob Mansfield Is Back at Apple". All Things D.
8. "Bob Mansfield no longer on Apple's exec team, will continue work on special projects". appleinsider.com. July 29, 2013.
9. "Apple Shifts Leadership of Self-Driving Car Unit to AI Chief". Bloomberg.com. 2020-12-08. Retrieved 2020-12-09.
10. "Apple's car project to be led by Bob Mansfield". TechCrunch. 2016.
11. "Apple to Wind Down Electric Car Effort After Decadelong Odyssey". Bloomberg.com. 2024-02-27. Retrieved 2024-03-07.