Apple hires Tesla engineer specialist in interior design; advertising and health professionals leave

Another week, another series of meetings and farewells at Apple – and, once again, related to some of the areas that have been teeming in Cupertino, such as automotive development and health. Let’s take a look at them.

Steve MacManus

The arrival of the day – as reported by MacRumors – it’s from Steve MacManus, an automotive engineer who was until recently in Tesla and has also worked for Jaguar / Land Rover, Bentley and Aston Martin – yes, an enviable resume.

Steve MacManusSteve MacManus (left)

There is no further information about the position MacManus will hold at Apple (his LinkedIn page only states that he is a “senior director” at the company), but his track record gives some clues: the engineer is an expert in automotive interior design, which it could mean a return of Apple’s interest in building its own vehicle.

Obviously, this is not the only option: MacManus can bring its expertise in the interior of cars to help create an autonomous system that better integrates with the internal characteristics of each vehicle. It can also play a role in a totally different area. The cloths on the “Project Titan” are still very thick, and we still have to wait a few years to hear any official word about it. Well, at least things are going.

Arnau Bosch Vergés

The main exit this time is not really from Apple, but it is a very influential name within the company: we are talking about Arnau Bosch Vergés, creative director of TBWA Media Arts Lab (advertising partner agency of Apple) and co-creator of some of the most iconic campaigns for the company in recent times. The information is The Drum.

Arnau Bosch Vergés

Bosch Vergés was, for example, one of the names behind the multi-award winning commercial for HomePod “Welcome Home“Directed by Spike Jonze and starring FKA Twigs. He joined TBWA Media Arts Lab in 2015, taking his current position in 2018, and is now leaving the agency to work at SoundStorming, an startup focused on a social media platform for musicians.

With the arrival of Nick Law, Apple is likely to have no major problems with its advertising leadership. Still, the loss of a great creative mind is always felt, and we will see in the coming months whether Apple’s communication will be impacted by Vergés’s departure.

Health professionals

Finally, one more way out – in fact, not one way out, but several: the insurance giant Anthem did the cleaning and hired several professionals Cheers da Maçã, among veterans and recent hires.

According to the CNBC, Anthem is trying to give a new face to its products for the end consumer, with more user friendly interfaces and simpler operation; Apple professionals would already have this knowledge in their DNA, which would explain the wave of hiring – this is the first time that Anthem has hired Apple employees. It also weighs the fact that the vice president of the company’s commercial sector, Aneesh Kumar, started his career in Cupertino, in the 1990s.

Among the main names recently hired by Anthem, we have the machine learning researcher Stefanos Giampanis and the health veteran Toni Trujillo Vian, who was with Apple for 24 years. The insurance giant also hired Ted Goldstein, who was vice president at Apple between 2002 and 2007, and a number of other prominent professionals.

Among the many health acquisitions and hires made by Apple in recent times, Anthem’s casualties may represent a certain obstacle to the company’s ambitions. Or not – only time will tell.