In a major leadership shakeup happening over at Apple, Indian-origin business executive Sabih Khan has been named the new chief operating officer.
According to a press release dated July (US time), the tech giant announced that its current COO Jeff Williams, 62, will be stepping down from his post later this month. Eventually transitioning to a new position in what has been a long-planned decision, Williams will still report to Apple CEO Tim Cook. Shifting course, he will oversee the word-class design team and Apple Watch along with the company’s Health initiatives.
The 27-year company veteran is ultimately poised to retire later this year. Consequently, Apple’s design team will switch to reporting directly to Cook.
Sabih Khan named new Apple COO
The Indian-origin man whose roots travel back to Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh was born in 1966. As of now, he’s helming the reins as the company’s operations leader. Khan, in his own right, has long been associated with Apple, given his 30-year-old tenure, as per the press release.
Praising him as a “brilliant strategist who has been one of the central architects of Apple’s supply chain,” Tim Cook has now passed on the baton to Sabih Khan.
“While overseeing Apple’s supply chain, he has helped pioneer new technologies in advanced manufacturing, overseen the expansion of Apple’s manufacturing footprint in the United States, and helped ensure that Apple can be nimble in response to global challenges,” the Apple CEO added. “He has advanced our ambitious efforts in environmental sustainability, helping reduce Apple’s carbon footprint by more than 60 percent. Above all, Sabih leads with his heart and his values, and I know he will make an exceptional chief operating officer.”
Khan joined Apple’s executive team in 2019, coming in as senior vice president of Operations. But he started out in the company as a member of Apple’s procurement group in 1995. For the past six years, he’s headed Apple’s global supply chain, ensured product quality and overseen planning, procurement, manufacturing, logistics, and product fulfillment functions. He even shouldered the company’s supplier responsibility programs that protect and educate workers at production facilities all over the world.
Even Khan’s predecessor, Jeff Williams, firmly believes that Apple’s leadership is in the right hands despite his exit. “I’ve had the pleasure of working closely with Sabih for 27 years and I think he’s the most talented operations executive on the planet,” he said.
More about Sabih Khan
Prior to his Apple responsibilities, Sabih Khan was at GE Plastics, working as an applications development engineer and key account technical leader. He got his bachelor’s degrees in economics and mechanical engineering from Tufts University and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
As one of Tim Cook’s top lieutenants since the early days, Khan once immediately got up during a meeting and drove straight to the airport to fly to China to fix a manufacturing problem that the Apple CEO red-flagged as “really bad,” according to a 2008 Fortune report.
Back in 2019, when Sabih Khan took over as senior VP of Operations, Cook hailed his efforts, noting that the Indian-origin exec led their Ops team with heart. “He and his entire worldwide team are committed to delivering unmatched experiences to our customers, treating workers everywhere with dignity and respect, and protecting the environment for future generations,” he went on.
Though originally from Moradabad, Khan only stayed in India up until he was in the fifth grade. His family eventually made a major life-changing decision to move to Singapore, where he finished his schooling. In his personal time, the Apple vet enjoys Hindi songs, according to a 2019 Aaj Tak report. One of his relatives also disclosed at the time he’s deeply fond of Parle-G biscuits.