It hasn’t been a good week for Apple’s corporate structure. 

Alan Dye, the head of Apple’s user interface design team, is leaving the company to take a job at Meta Platforms Inc. Dye will serve as Meta’s Chief Design Officer. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Dye will report directly to Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s Chief Technology Officer. Dye will help lead Reality Labs, the team behind products like the Meta Quest line of VR headsets. 

This shift comes amidst other major departures from Apple. Apple’s former Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams, retired in November. Earlier this week, Apple’s head of AI development John Giannandrea announced he was stepping down. Outlets like Bloomberg are also speculating other Apple departures are coming soon, including Apple’s head of silicon development Johny Srouji and even CEO Tim Cook.

Interestingly, Dye’s departure may be a silver lining. While Apple lost their head of design, Dye will be replaced by Stephen Lemay, a veteran at the company who “has played a key role in the design of every major Apple interface since 1999,” according to CEO Tim Cook. Cook also said that “[Lemay] has always set an extraordinarily high bar for excellence and embodies Apple’s culture of collaboration and creativity.”

John Gruber, a tech blogger who often writes about Apple, claims that employees at Apple with whom he has spoken are “happy – if not downright giddy – at the news that Lemay is replacing Dye.” 

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Sam Medley – Senior Tech Writer – 1502 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2016

I’ve been a computer geek my entire life. After graduating college with a degree in Mathematics, I worked in finance and banking a few years before taking a job as a database administrator. I started working with Notebookcheck in October of 2016 and have enjoyed writing news and reviews. I’ve also written for other outlets including UltrabookReview and GeeksWorldWide, focusing on consumer guidance and video gaming. My areas of interest include the business side of technology, retro gaming, Linux, and innovative gadgets. When I’m not writing on electronics or tinkering with a device, I’m either outside with my family, enjoying a decade-old video game, or playing drums or piano.