Apple Appoints Global Head for Its Retail Stores in Latest Management Shift

Apple is naming a global head of stores, a move meant to streamline management of its retail arm under senior executive Deirdre O'Brien, according to people with knowledge of the matter. 

The company is promoting Vanessa Trigub to a new role as vice president of stores and retail operations globally, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the changes haven't been announced. She previously managed locations in the Americas West region, in addition to handling retail operations. Now she'll oversee the heads of retail for Europe and the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and the Americas East region. 

The promotion and new reporting structure gives Trigub more responsibility and simplifies the retail organization, which is overseen at the top by O'Brien. That executive, a longtime Apple veteran, returned last year to a role handling both retail and human-resource operations.

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment. 

As part of the change, O'Brien will now have fewer direct reports. Instead of managing the retail executives for individual regions, she'll oversee Trigub and the vice presidents in charge of retail real estate, marketing and online sales. O'Brien is still reshuffling the HR organisation after the former chief people officer, Carol Surface, was pushed out of the company after less than two years in the role.

Trigub started at Apple as an intern right around the time the original iPhone went on sale and held a series of roles in finance, mergers and acquisitions, and retail operations. In 2023, she was elevated to a company vice president, taking over retail operations and the Americas West region. 

The leadership of Apple's retail network — which spans about 535 stores around the world — has remained fairly stable since O'Brien took over in 2019. Prior to her, the group was run by former Burberry Group Plc Chief Executive Officer Angela Ahrendts. Her predecessor, British executive John Browett, was forced out after six months in the job. 

People involved in the retail group believe that the company could be grooming Trigub as a possible heir to O'Brien, who has worked at Apple for more than three decades. The iPhone maker has increasingly discussed succession plans internally in recent years, with many of its top executives reaching retirement age.

The move marks the second notable management change at Apple in recent days. Last week, the company formalised a plan to strip Siri from AI chief John Giannandrea and put Vision Pro creator Mike Rockwell in charge of the voice assistant, Bloomberg News reported.

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