Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that a key Apple executive is leaving the company (no, it’s not Tim Cook). Alan Dye, who leads Apple’s user interface design team, is leaving Apple Park in Cupertino for Ravenswood Slough in Menlo Park and Meta headquarters, where he will lead “a new design studio,” Gurman said, and be “in charge of designing the hardware, software and AI integration for its interfaces.”
Dye has led Apple’s user interface design team since 2015. He will be replaced by Steve Lemay, who “has played a key role in the design of every major Apple interface since 1999,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement to Bloomberg. “He has always set the bar for excellence extraordinarily high and embodies Apple’s culture of collaboration and creativity.”
Dye has played a key role in several recent product rollouts for Apple. He led the user interface redesign efforts in version 26 operating systems, as well as with Apple Vision Pro, Apple Watch, and iPhone X. He was one of Jony Ive’s protégés and one of the few remaining designers from that era.
This news follows several reports throughout this year of meta-poaching of Apple employees. Several members of Apple’s AI development team left for Meta, including Ruoming Pang, who led the development of Apple’s AI model. Bloomberg reported that Pang was offered $200 million in compensation, most of which was stock options.
Earlier this week, Apple announced that AI chief John Giannandrea was “retiring” and that renowned AI researcher Amar Subramanya would take his place.
