Jeff Wiliams Is Apple's COO. Will He Succeed Tim Cook?

Apple named its senior operations man Jeff Williams its new Chief Operating Officer (COO), a position CEO Tim Cook held during Steve Jobs reign. The move set off talks of iPhone-maker putting in place a succession plan.

Apple Insider reports that Williams' elevation is part of an executive shakeup that includes vesting charge of App Store with Phil Schiller, company's senior VP for worldwide marketing. The company also announced that Tor Myhren from Grey Group is joining Apple as chief creative officer while Johny Srouji, vice president of Hardware Technologies, will be joining the executive team as senior VP hardware technologies, Apple informed.

"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. 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," Cook said in a news release.

Cook was COO of Apple before his appointment as Jobs' successor, just weeks before the latter's death. Quoting other sources, CNET reports that company has succession plans for Cook but Williams' elevation may not be a sign that he is Cook's successor. Williams is the first COO to be named since Cook was made CEO and is known as Tim Cook's Tim Cook.