Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior vice president of Mac software engineering who reported to founder and chief executive Steve Jobs, will leave the company, Apple reported today.
“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,” Serlet said.
Craig Federighi, vice president of Mac software engineering, will take over Serlet's duties. Federighi has headed up the development of Mac OS X and managing OS software engineering for two years. “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," Serlet said.
Serlet joined Apple in 1997, after spending a few years at at Xerox PARC and NeXT in 1989. Serlet holds a doctorate in Computer Science from the University of Orsay in France.
Federighi had previously worked at Apple before leaving to work for Ariba. He came back to Apple in 2009 to lead the Mac's OS X engineering team. He holds a master's in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley.
After 22 years at Apple, I can understand why Serlet might think it's time to go. While I'm not sure I believe he's leaving for "science," perhaps he's also seeing that the Mac will definitely be playing second banana to Apple's mobile products. Besides, could you have handled Steve Jobs moodiness for two decades?
