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Apple's Executive Board Finally Includes Mark Papermaster

Sources also confirm the hiring of an ex AMD staffer who worked on GameCube's graphics

Apr 28, 2009 06:49 GMT  ·  By
Mark Papermaster, now SVP of Devices Hardware Engineering, Apple
   Mark Papermaster, now SVP of Devices Hardware Engineering, Apple

Apple's Executive Profiles page now lists Mark Papermaster as one of the company's execs, following a six-month-long wait. The ex-IBM chip expert is believed to have been sought out for hiring in the purpose of creating a portable device bigger than the iPhone, but smaller than the MacBook.

Last year, Apple was happily announcing (again) that ex-IBM chip design expert Mark Papermaster was joining the company as Senior Vice President of Devices Hardware Engineering. The announcement came after IBM's ex Blade server guru had settled legally with IBM on the terms of his leaving the company.

However, on those same terms, Apple would also need to wait until April 24 to have Papermaster. The chip expert, for his part, will have to certify in July and October that he hasn't disclosed any IBM confidential information to the Mac maker.

Apple's Bios page now lists Mark Papermaster as Senior Vice President of the Devices Hardware Engineering section, while no photo of the man is yet available. “He leads the iPod and iPhone engineering teams, and reports directly to Apple's CEO,” Apple says.

“Papermaster has 25 years of product and technology experience, and was previously a vice president at IBM responsible for blade development including x86, POWER, storage blades, chassis, network electronics and associated ecosystem,” the bios page further reveals. “He started his career in application-specific IC development circuit design at IBM’s Microelectronics Division, and had technical and management assignments in quality, CAD tool applications, and microprocessors.” Additional information about Papermaster is also offered.

An Apple representative has also confirmed the additional hiring of a certain Bob Drebin. The Inquirer reports that he is a former graphics chip engineer for ATI Technologies (and, later, AMD). According to the report, Drebin put a lot of work hours into the the graphics chip used by one of Nintendo's gaming systems, the GameCube. He is now a “Senior Director” at Apple, while his role within the company is yet to be officially announced.