Apple Removes SVP Bob Mansfield From Executive Team ⇥ allthingsd.com

Bizarre Sunday night news from AllThingsD’s John Paczkowski:

“Bob is no longer going to be on Apple’s executive team, but will remain at Apple working on special projects reporting to [CEO] Tim [Cook],” company spokesman Steve Dowling told AllThingsD. He declined any further explanation, refusing to comment on the reasons behind Mansfield’s abrupt demotion or whether Apple plans to appoint a new SVP of technologies.

Mansfield has always been highly-regarded at Apple. He was due to retire in June last year, but returned in August to lead an all-encompassing “technologies” team.

Apple made two hires of note this year, both of which add to the mystery of this news. In March, Adobe’s Kevin Lynch was hired as VP of technologies; Mansfield was SVP of technologies, which meant that Lynch was likely directly below him in the chain of command. In June, Apple copped the CEO of Yves St Laurent to work on “special projects”. While it’s obvious that neither of these hires explain Mansfield’s demotion (but not departure), I think they add to the cloud of mystery.

Truly a bizarre piece of news. Hopefully, we’ll find out more tomorrow.