Apple Loses a Top Executive as Jeff Williams Officially Retires

Apple executive Jeff Williams has retired, after working at the company for more than 25 years.

Apple removed Williams from its leadership page on Friday, which was his final day, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

Williams joined Apple in 1998, and was promoted to Chief Operations Officer (COO) in 2015. He held the role until July of this year, when he was succeeded by Sabih Khan, who was previously Apple's Senior Vice President of Operations.

As part of a planned transition, Williams remained at Apple as Senior Vice President of Design, Watch, and Health until this Friday.

For a decade, Williams oversaw Apple's entire worldwide operations, as well as customer service and support. He also led Apple Watch engineering and health initiatives at the company, and he took over Apple's design team in 2023.

Williams was one of the top executives at Apple, so his departure is very notable. At one point, he was even considered a potential candidate for CEO.

Here is what Williams said about his retirement plans back in July:

Apple CEO Tim Cook, in July:

We wish Williams all the best in retirement.