Apple names Jeff Williams COO

Apple Inc. named Jeff Williams chief operating officer, as part of an announcement of several key executive moves. In almost eight years as vice president of this division, he has overseen custom silicon and hardware technologies including batteries, application processors, storage controllers, sensor silicon, display silicon and other chipsets across Apple’s entire product line.

“We are fortunate to have incredible depth and breadth of talent across Apple’s executive team”, says Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.

Apple also said it would expand the responsibilities of global marketing chief Phil Schiller to include leading the Apple App Store.

Mr. Williams, who joined Apple in 1998 and is responsible for overseeing its massive supply chain and operations, has been expanding his role at the company, including overseeing the development of the Apple Watch.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is confident in the new appointments.

It has also appointed former USA marketing agency executive Tor Myhren as vice president of marketing communications, reporting directly to chief executive Tim Cook.

“Schiller is the ideal pick for the App Store given his background, and (is) very important as Apple goes into its next phase of growth with the App Store front and center”, Ives said.

The other changes to Apple’s executive team equally reflect the contributions existing members have made, along with the benefits the new additions should be able to add to Cupertino’s strength as a tech giant.

Schiller, meanwhile, will assume the role as manager of Apple’s App Store, a software repository that continues to widen in scope.

Myhren will be succeed Hiroki Asai, an 18-year Apple veteran who worked in graphic design and market communications.

His replacement as senior vice president is Johny Srouji, who was previously vice president of hardware technologies, having joined Apple in 2008.

In early trading Thursday, Apple shares fell 14 cents, to $111.20.