Tang Tan, Apple’s vice president of product design, is leaving the company in February, marking another high-level departure in recent history.
Sources in the company say that the departure is a blow to the company. Tang was responsible for making critical decisions about many of Apple’s products and had substantial influence over the design of iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods products.
According to Bloomberg, Apple is reshuffling Tan’s duties to handle the transition. Those who worked alongside Tan will have expanded roles, including Richard Dinh, Tan’s top lieutenant and head of iPhone product design. Hardware engineer executive Kate Bergeron will take over the design of the Apple Watch.
Tan’s departure marks the second learned of this week. On Wednesday, news broke that Steve Hotelling, an Apple executive responsible for innovative technologies used in iPhone, iPad, and even Apple Vision Pro, is retiring from Apple.
