Denise Young Smith, who served as Apple's head of Worldwide Human Resources, has taken on a new role, according to her LinkedIn page. Going forward, Smith will tackle Diversity issues at the company as Apple's Vice President for Inclusion and Diversity.
Since joining Apple in 1997, Denise has served in several key HR roles. Most recently as Vice President of Worldwide Human Resources and Talent. For over 10 years, she sat on the leadership team that built Apple's retail organization, which **w welcomes more than one million people every day. Apple stores have redefined the retail experience and their talented employees have become the face of Apple for customers around the world. Before retail, Denise ran HR for Apple's Worldwide Operations and Corporate Employee Relations teams.
According to an internal source that spoke to 9to5Mac, Smith has already taken on the new Role at Apple, though her executive page on Apple's leadership site has yet to be updated. With Smith moving to her new role, Apple will have ** head of HR, a Role that Luca Maestri, Apple CFO, will temporarily fill.
Apple's previous head of Diversity and inclusion, Jeffrey Simi**ff, was in a director Role that reported to Smith, but Smith's position is executive level, which TechCrunch says represents a "significant upscaling of responsibility" compared to the Role Simi**ff previously held.
According to Apple's latest worldwide diversity numbers, the company is 68 percent male and 32 percent female, while in the U.S., employees are 56 percent white, 19 percent Asian, 12 percent Hispanic, and nine percent black.
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