Bid adieu to another Apple exec. Doug Beck, a sales executive, is leaving the tech giant for a senior role at the U.S Defense Department. He’ll lead the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), which promotes the use of commercial technology within the military.
Beck will oversee efforts to accelerate the Department’s adoption of commercial technology throughout the military and also serve as a senior advisor to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense on technology innovation, competition, and strategic impact, the U.S. Department said in a statement.
Beck is currently a vice president at Apple, where he has reported directly to CEO Tim Cook since joining the company in 2009. During that time, he co-led Apple’s global business development and sales functions, and led the company’s business across Northeast Asia and the Americas, and most recently, several of the company’s purpose-driven businesses worldwide, including in health, education, and other institutions of public impact. He has over 14 years of experience living and working across Asia, including in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, and Indonesia.
Beck is a Captain in the U.S. Navy Reserve and served from 2006 through 2007 in Iraq and Afghanistan with a joint special operations task force. He has also served extensively throughout the Asia Pacific region during his nearly 26 years of service, including command of a large joint reserve unit supporting U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Beck has previous experience working with DIU, as he founded and led its joint reserve component from inception in 2015 through 2019. His personal and unit awards include the Defense Superior Service Medal (two awards), the Bronze Star Medal, the Combat Action Ribbon, and the Presidential Unit Citation.
As noted by Bloomberg, Beck’s departure marks yet another senior exit. In recent months, the company has lost executives overseeing industrial design, hardware and software engineering, procurement, sales in emerging markets, subscription and cloud services, online retail, and information systems.
Article provided with permission from AppleWorld.Today