Dan Riccio, a veteran Apple executive, will retire later this month after 26 years with the company, according to Bloomberg. Riccio most recently played a key role in the development of the Vision Pro as vice president of engineering, reporting directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Riccio’s story at Apple
Riccio joined Apple in June 1998 as director of product design and was promoted to senior vice president of hardware engineering in August 2012, a position he held for more than eight years. In 2021, it was moved to an unspecified project, which turned out to be the Vision Pro headset.
John Ternus, who succeeded Riccio as senior vice president of hardware engineering and is tipped to take the helm at Apple after Tim Cook, will now take care of the development of the Vision Pro, as well as the team of several hundred engineers from the Vision Products group. Mike Rockwell, who worked under Riccio, will continue to oversee day-to-day work on the Vision Pro and other similar headsets.
In addition to his work on the Vision Pro, Riccio has been a strong advocate for Apple’s self-driving car project, which the company ultimately abandoned earlier this year. During his career at Apple, Riccio also oversaw the development of AirPods, the iPad Pro and the first larger-screen iPhones.
A discreet but important person who will likely leave a void at Apple.