Apple Announces A New VP Of Developer Relations In Advance Of WWDC

by , 2:40 PM EDT, April 30th, 2001

Just in time for May's World Wide Developer Conference, Apple has announced the addition of a new vice president of Developer Relations. The company has hired Ron Okamoto from Adobe for the position. Mr. Okamoto's history also includes time with Macromedia, another large Mac developer. Mr. Okamoto replaces Apple veteran Clent Richardson, who left Apple in late March to work for One 2 One, a UK cellular communications company. Mr. Richardson left Apple directly following the successful Mac OS X roll out. According to Apple:

Apple® today announced that Ron Okamoto has joined Apple as vice president of Developer Relations, reporting to Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

"We are thrilled to have Ron leading our developer relations team," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "Ron's firsthand experience at two successful Mac developers will help Apple to become an even better partner for our third party developers."

Okamoto was previously vice president of Product Management and Marketing for graphics products at Adobe Systems, where he was responsible for the worldwide marketing and management of many award-winning products including Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects. Prior to joining Adobe, Okamoto was director of Product Marketing at Macromedia, Inc. Okamoto holds a bachelors of science degree in Business Administration from the University of Southern California.

You can find more information, including registration info, at Apple's WWDC 2001 Web site.

The Mac Observer Spin:

Apple's most successful and popular VP of Developer Relations was probably Heidi Roizen. She departed soon after Steve Jobs returned, though that timing was supposed to be coincidental (and we are not insinuating anything to the contrary). Clent Richardson has occupied the position for the last few years. We still do not know why Mr. Richardson left Apple, but the company obviously placed a lot of effort into finding a replacement in advance of May's WWDC event, as demonstrated by the fact that the deal with Mr. Okamoto was signed, sealed, and delivered in one month's time. Mr. Okamoto will have his work cut out for him in getting up to speed for the WWDC.

It is imperative for Apple's success that their developer relations continue to improve. The company has been working to repair the damage done in the mid-90's to its developer relations before Ms. Roizen rejoined Apple in the role of VP of Developer Relations under Gil Amelio. We wish Mr. Okamoto the best of luck in continuing this work.

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