Apple Park. Image source: Apple
Senior vice president of retail and people Deirdre O’Brien is about to get some help thanks to a new role Apple will introduce soon called the vice president of stores and retail operations.
There has been some back and forth regarding Apple’s leadership around HR and retail in recent years. Deirdre O’Brien took over as vice president of people in 2017, that role expanded to retail and people in 2019, collapsed down to just retail again in 2023, then back to retail and people in 2024.
This time, according to a report from Bloomberg, O’Brien is getting help on the retail side, but sticking with the SVP of retail and people role. Instead, a new vice president of stores and retail operations will be created with Vanessa Trigub in the role.
The news comes from anonymous people speaking to Bloomberg about the plans, and nothing official has been said by Apple yet. Trigub previously managed locations in the American West region but will take over managing globally and reporting to O’Brien.
This power shuffle places the individual region executives under Trigub, so fewer people are reporting directly to O’Brien. The SVP still gets direct reports from retail real estate, marketing, and online sales executives.
Trigub has been with Apple since about 2007 and was promoted to the vice president role over retail operations in the Americas West region in 2023. The report suggests that Trigub is being groomed as a potential heir to O’Brien.
