The departure of Nancy Heinen, Apple Computer Inc.'s general counsel, seems to be the latest top secret at a company that really likes its secrets.
Almost a week after news site AppleInsider first revealed the company's nine-year GC had left the company, it remains unclear whether one of Silicon Valley's highest-ranking female attorneys was forced to leave or whether she had resigned -- or even when her last day was.
Heinen answered her cell phone Wednesday while hiking the hills near her Portola Valley home, but did little more than confirm she would not be returning to the Cupertino, Calif.-based company.
When asked what her future plans were, Heinen replied, "I'm hiking -- that's my plan for today," before declining to provide further information.
Apple, notoriously tight-lipped about executive departures -- and pretty much everything else -- was equally mum.
Apple spokesman Steve Dowling confirmed that Heinen was "no longer an Apple employee," but declined to say when she had left or why. An Apple employee who requested anonymity confirmed that Heinen's last day was May 1.
Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer will serve as interim GC while the company launches a search for a permanent replacement, Dowling said.
Few interviewed for this story wanted to comment on the record about Heinen's departure.
One legal recruiter said that Heinen had an "unusually strong relationship with [Apple CEO] Steve Jobs," and added that it was highly unlikely Jobs would have fired Heinen. At the same time, the mystery with which Apple has shrouded the matter has raised some eyebrows. "Something big must be happening" if Apple was being so quiet about the matter, the source said.
Others say this is typical Apple behavior. "They're extremely tight-lipped over there," one San Francisco Bay Area general counsel said. "They try to muzzle leaks. ... they really want to control the message [going] out. It's going to be pretty hard to get any sort of scoop out of them."
Before joining Apple as its GC, Heinen was vice president, general counsel and secretary of the board of directors at NeXT Software Inc. until its acquisition by Apple in 1997.
|