John Paczkowski at Re/code:
Big news out of Apple today. Katie Cotton, who as VP of worldwide corporate communications at Apple has helped steward the announcement of some of tech’s most transformative products, is retiring. During her nearly two decades at Apple, Cotton served as gatekeeper to company co-founder Steve Jobs and current CEO Tim Cook, and guided the media narrative around pretty much everything from the iMac to the iPad.
Truly an influential executive at Apple over the last 18 years, and one that’s absolutely shaped the attitude of the company as we know it today.
There have been a ton of changes in leadership positions within Apple in 2014. Angela Ahrendts has recently come on board as VP for Retail and Online Stores (filling the long-vacant slot after John Browett was turfed), Greg Christie is moving on, and CFO Peter Oppenheimer is retiring in September to be replaced by Luca Maestri.
Out of all those people, I think Katie’s retirement will have the largest impact on the public face of Apple. It’ll be fascinating to see if her replacement will continue in a similar style (or not).
Also worth a read; John Gruber’s write up of when he met Katie at the Antennagate event in 2010.