Meet Apple’s New COO

The head of the Apple Watch project is now being promoted to lead Apple’s operations.

Apple announced Thursday (Dec. 17) that Jeff Williams, who has most recently held the role of VP of operations, will now take the reins as chief operating officer.

Williams has worked for Apple since 1998, when he initially came on board as the head of worldwide procurement. In 2004, he was appointed vice president of operations and he spearheaded the development of the Apple Watch in 2013.

“Since 2010 he has overseen Apple’s entire supply chain, service and support, and the social responsibility initiatives which protect more than 1 million workers worldwide,” Apple said in a statement. “Jeff played a key role in Apple’s entry into the mobile phone market with the launch of iPhone, and he continues to supervise development of Apple’s first wearable product, Apple Watch.”

The company also announced the appointment of Johny Srouji to Apple’s executive team as SVP for hardware technologies.

“We are fortunate to have incredible depth and breadth of talent across Apple’s executive team. As we come to the end of the year, we’re recognizing the contributions already being made by two key executives,” Apple’s CEO Tim Cook said. “Jeff is hands-down the best operations executive I’ve ever worked with, and Johny’s team delivers world-class silicon designs which enable new innovations in our products year after year.”

Apple also said the responsibilities of global marketing chief Phil Schiller will be expanded to include running the Apple App Store. Among other leadership changes, advertising agency Grey New York’s Chief Creative Officer Tor Myhren will contribute to Apple’s advertising efforts as the VP of marketing communications in the first quarter of 2016.