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Bertrand Serlet to Leave Apple
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John Molloy
- [ Ignore ]
CUPERTINO, California?March 23, 2011?Apple? today announced that Bertrand Serlet, Apple?s senior vice president of Mac? Software Engineering, will be leaving the company. Craig Federighi, Apple?s vice president of Mac Software Engineering, will assume Serlet?s responsibilities and report to Steve Jobs, Apple?s CEO. Federighi is responsible for the development of Mac OS? X and has been managing the Mac OS software engineering group for the past two years.
?I?ve worked with Steve for 22 years and have had an incredible time developing products at both NeXT and Apple, but at this point, I want to focus less on products and more on science,? said Bertrand Serlet, Apple?s senior vice president of Software Engineering. ?Craig has done a great job managing the Mac OS team for the past two years, Lion is a great release and the transition should be seamless.?
Federighi worked at NeXT, followed by Apple, and then spent a decade at Ariba where he held several roles including vice president of Internet Services and chief technology officer. He returned to Apple in 2009 to lead Mac OS X engineering. Federighi holds a Master of Science degree in Computer Science and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley.
Serlet joined Apple in 1997, and has been involved in the definition, development and creation of Mac OS X, the world?s most advanced operating system. Before joining Apple, Serlet spent four years at Xerox PARC, then joined NeXT in 1989. Serlet holds a doctorate in Computer Science from the University of Orsay, France.
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Probably not happy with the decision of folding MacOS X into iOS, with Scott Forstall outshining him.
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Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. - Steve Jobs
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Probably not happy with the decision of folding MacOS X into iOS, with Scott Forstall outshining him.
That’s one good reason and it is likely Mac OS X could have gone other interesting ways with Lion.
After 22 years with the company, I’d be getting an itch.
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DawnTreader
- [ Ignore ]
Decisions of this nature are often personal and during his tenure with the company he has most likely become quite wealthy. I’m not reading anymore into it than a person choosing to pursue other interests after many years in leadership positions at Apple.
The transition may have already been underway long before the official announcement.
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Decisions of this nature are often personal and during his tenure with the company he has most likely become quite wealthy. I’m not reading anymore into it than a person choosing to pursue other interests after many years in leadership positions at Apple.
The transition may have already been underway long before the official announcement.
I’d say at least 2008 since they brought Craig Federighi back in 2009 as head of OSX engineering.
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I don’t mind being wrong…,I just hate being wrong so FAST!
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Decisions of this nature are often personal ...
Is the number one cited reason for leaving. Is THE politically correct answer. In fact, should ALWAYS be THE reason regardless of ranks and other reasons. The common real reasons (I have tons of friends working in HR departments) for high flyers to leave are: Disagreement with the strategic direction, can’t work with the CEO and being sidestep for a promotion.
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Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. - Steve Jobs
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He is 51, has tons of AAPL shares.. and feels he is getting less inventive. May be he just want to be back in his homeland, teach computer science and head some research team.
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Decisions of this nature are often personal ...
Is the number one cited reason for leaving. Is THE politically correct answer. In fact, should ALWAYS be THE reason regardless of ranks and other reasons. The common real reasons (I have tons of friends working in HR departments) for high flyers to leave are: Disagreement with the strategic direction, can’t work with the CEO and being sidestep for a promotion.
But in this situation I’ll take him at his word. 22 years working on what in essence is a single project! I’d have to leave or kill myself.
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I don’t mind being wrong…,I just hate being wrong so FAST!
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Adieu, Bertrand!
Enjoy the next phase of your illustrious career. It’s a nice, smooth transition from all accounts. We still have Forstall as overall iOS/OS X guru even if Federighi were to leave, and all of Apple’s OS X engineers and a steadily expanding dev community means OS X will be in good hands for years to come.
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The Summer of AAPL is here. Enjoy it (responsibly) while it lasts.
AFB Night Owl Team™
Thanks, Steve. -
The Wall Street Journal is echoing much of what is said above. You can read it here.
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I don’t mind being wrong…,I just hate being wrong so FAST!
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The Wall Street Journal is echoing much of what is said above. You can read it here.
Non sequitur (finally got to use this word
). Planned transition doesn’t imply is not leaving for one of the common reasons for high flyers to leave. Formal reasons are false.Signature
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. - Steve Jobs
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The Wall Street Journal is echoing much of what is said above. You can read it here.
Non sequitur (finally got to use this word
). Planned transition doesn’t imply is not leaving for one of the common reasons for high flyers to leave. Formal reasons are false.Well…,at least it agrees with what I was saying.
Do you have some knowledge that the formal reasons are false or are you speculating?Signature
I don’t mind being wrong…,I just hate being wrong so FAST!
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... Do you have some knowledge that the formal reasons are false or are you speculating?
I love to speculate
, I believe in using the brain to see and listen not eyes and ears 
and I ALWAYS don’t believe the formal reasons. Retiring at 51 years old from the most innovative technology firm in the world, a dream that any IT professionals would like to work for. Just don’t make any sense.I think the author based his story in this thread, almost exact words used e.g. strategic direction. There is some truth in him wanting to do some science or for some personal reasons, these reasons are valid and believable, otherwise the real reason becomes obvious.
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Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. - Steve Jobs
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goubulibaozi
- [ Ignore ]
Wil Shipley, developer, formerly at Omni wrote of his experiences with Bertrand Serlet and Craig Federighi over the years wishing Serlet well and welcoming Federighi back to Apple. He clearly respects both.
http://BLOG.WILSHIPLEY.COM/2011/03/CELEBRATING-BETRAND-SERLET-AND-CRAIG.HTML
Long time Apple Engineer wrote of his past strained relationship with Serlet but how he has new found respect for his accomplishments after he left Apple employment.
http://WEB.MAC.COM/CASSERES/SITE/BLOG/ENTRIES/2011/3/23_BERTRAND_SERLET_LEAVES_APPLE.HTML
It should be pointed that Serlet inherited a thousand or more Apple engineers when taking over with Avie Tevanian in 1997, many of whom were disenchanted with downturns at Apple and misguided projects (Copland, Tangilent, Pink, etc). They had previously handled only a couple of hundred of engineers at most at NeXT (after the 1993 Black Tuesday firing of 280 employees out of 530 NeXT employees. It had to be difficult and sloppy and inefficient practices were more than evident at Apple by 1997 (dare I suggest 7.5 7.6, 7.61, 7.62 and incredible number of re-boots in those days?)
Not mentioned in many articles is the smoothness of this planned transition. Serlet in the Apple PR mentions Federighi managing the team well for the last two years and how good the Lion upgrade was. The reins were past long ago.
Hopefully Serlet won’t repeat the silliness of ex hardware VP Jon Rubinstein on his way out the door when shortly before he gave an interview with Berliner in late 2005.
“In an interview with the German daily Berliner Zeitung on Monday, Apple vice president and iPod division head Jon Rubenstein expressed his feelings on the convergence of music devices and cell phones, saying the devices are best left separate.”
“Is there a toaster that also knows how to brew coffee? There is no such combined device, because it would not make anything better than an individual toaster or coffee machine,” Rubenstein argued. “It works the same way with the iPod, the digital camera or mobile phone: it is important to have specialized devices.”
http://www.betanews.com/article/iPod-Chief-Not-Excited-About-iTunes-Phone/1127851994
He was already long gone from Apple in 2010 when he remarked that he had not used an iPhone at an All Things Digital interview.
