Apple management shake-up continues with departures of general counsel and policy chief
Apple’s management shakeup continues. Days after announcing the departure of AI chief John Giannandrea and the loss of design director Alan Dye to Meta, the iPhone maker shared news of two more retirements.
Kate Adams, who has served as Apple’s general counsel since 2017, will retire at the end of next year, while Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president for environment, policy and social initiatives, will retire at the end of January 2026.
The company also announced the hiring of Jennifer Newstead, who will become its general counsel on March 1, 2026, reporting to Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook, following a transition of duties from Adams.
Newstead arrives from Meta, where she was legal director. Prior to that, she served as legal advisor to the U.S. Department of State, where she led the team advising the Secretary of State on legal issues affecting the conduct of U.S. foreign relations.
She has also served in other government positions in the past, including General Counsel in the White House Office of Management and Budget, Principal Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Policy, Associate White House Counsel, and Law Clerk to Justice Stephen Breyer of the United States Supreme Court.
Newstead will oversee both legal and government organizations, Cook noted.
“We couldn’t be happier to have Jennifer join our team,” he said. “She brings extraordinary experience and skills to this role and will advance Apple’s important work around the world.”
During Adams’ tenure at Apple, the company faced increased antitrust regulation and lawsuits, largely focused on increasing competition in the app market.
During that time, Jackson, who had previously been appointed to the EPA before joining Apple in 2013, was involved in Apple’s climate initiatives, sustainability efforts, environmental impact, and DEI-focused efforts, such as its Racial Equity and Justice Initiative. Such efforts have fallen out of favor with private sector giants under the Trump administration.
“I am deeply grateful for Lisa’s contributions. She has been instrumental in helping us reduce our global greenhouse gas emissions by more than 60 percent compared to 2015 levels,” Cook said in a statement. “It has also been a critical strategic partner in engaging governments around the world, advocating for the best interests of our users on a myriad of topics, as well as advancing our values, from education and accessibility to privacy and security.
Apple has seen a number of leadership changes in recent months, having also announced the departure of COO Jeff Williams in July, with the duties moving to Sabih Khan, who was previously senior vice president of operations. Before Giannandrea left, Apple replaced him as head of the Siri team with Mike Rockwell, who was group vice president of Vision Products.
The company also lost Ke Yang, the executive responsible for Apple’s work on AI-based web search, to Meta; and that saw the departure of Ruoming Pang, Apple’s former head of AI models, who left for Meta earlier this year.
Leadership is changing as Apple falls behind in the AI race, pushing back the launch of an AI-powered Siri, which will now run Google’s models under the hood. Apple has also been criticized by designers for losing the careful attention to detail that the company has long been known for. This reportedly led to some celebration of Dye’s departure among Apple employees, according to a report from Daring Fireball, who are happy that a career interface and interaction designer, Stephen Lemay, has taken over the role.
