Craig Federighi | |
---|---|
![]() Federighi in 2021 | |
Born | 1968 or 1969 (age 55–56)[1] |
Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley (BS,MS) |
Occupation |
|
Known for | Part ofApple Inc. leadership |
Children | 4 |
Website | https://www.apple.com/leadership/craig-federighi/ |
Craig Federighi (born 1968 or 1969) is an American engineer and business executive who is the senior vice president (SVP) ofsoftware engineering atApple Inc. He oversees the development of Apple'soperating systems. His teams are responsible for delivering the software of Apple's products, including theuser interface,applications, andframeworks.[2][3]
Federighi was born inSan Leandro,California.[4] He received abachelor of science in electrical engineering and computer science and amaster of science in computer science from theUniversity of California, Berkeley, in 1991 and 1993, respectively.[5]
Federighi worked atNeXT, where he led development of theEnterprise Objects Framework.[6] He joined Apple when it acquired NeXT in 1996, but then left it in 1999 forAriba, where he held several roles including chief technology officer.[7]
Federighi returned to Apple in 2009 to leadmacOS engineering,[8] after Apple had just finished developingMac OS X Snow Leopard, which was highly regarded for its focus on speed and quality.[9] In March 2011, Federighi succeededBertrand Serlet as vice president of Mac software engineering at Apple,[10] and in August 2012 he was promoted to senior vice president, reporting to CEOTim Cook.[3] UponScott Forstall's departure from Apple, his role was expanded to encompass iOS in addition to macOS.[11] In the following decade of Federighi's leadership, many observers noted a marked decline in the quality[12][13][14][15] of Apple's software products.
Federighi was reported to own more than 500,000 shares of Apple stock worth about US$180 million as of June 2020.[16]
Within the community of Apple users and developers, Federighi is known for his presentations of new Apple software, frequently featuring absurdist humor such as references to his hair, use of new software features to organize events such as office karaoke parties and camping trips, and his claimed love of the bandRush. A running gag in Federighi's macOS presentations involves him describing the fictional exploits of the “crack product marketing team”, venturing naked through California in a Volkswagen Minibus and ultimately arriving at the location after which the version of the operating system is named. Federighi has some notable nicknames around Apple, such as "Hair Force One". Additionally, Apple CEO Tim Cook has called him "Superman".[17][18]
His first appearance onstage during a major Apple event was at WWDC 2009, where he helped Bertrand Serlet introduceMac OS X Snow Leopard. He made another appearance during 2010's 'Back to the Mac' presentation, showing offMac OS X Lion. He introducediOS 7 andOS X Mavericks at Apple'sWWDC 2013 developer conference, andiOS 8 andOS X Yosemite atWWDC 2014.[19][20] AtWWDC 2015, he delivered most of Apple's 2-hour main opening-day presentation, introducing iOS 9 and OS X 10.11 "El Capitan", and revealing plans to release Apple's new programming language Swift as an open-source project.[21] In September 2015, he demoed 3D Touch in the newiPhone 6S.
At WWDC 2016, Federighi introducediOS 10 andmacOS 10.12 "Sierra" and said that the 15-year-old OS X would be rebranded as "macOS" in tune with the naming scheme used foriOS,tvOS, andwatchOS. He emphasized the use of widgets on the iOS lock screen and announced new APIs for Siri and iMessage that would be open to all developers. In March 2016, Federighi wrote an article forThe Washington Post stating that "I became an engineer because I believe in the power of technology to enrich our lives" as his motivation.[22]
In 2017, Federighi announced that the Safari web browser would block cookies from following people from site to site.[23]
At anApple Special Event in September 2017, Federighi initially failed to properly demo theFace ID feature on theiPhone X. Apple stated that before the event, some Apple employees had inadvertently triggered Face ID on one of the demonstration phones, causing it to instead prompt for a passcode when Federighi attempted to unlock it.[24]
At WWDC 2018, Federighi introducediOS 12 andmacOS 10.14 "Mojave".
At WWDC 2019, he introducediOS 13,iPadOS andmacOS 10.15 "Catalina".
At WWDC 2020, he was the lead presenter showcasing many of Apple's recent advancements.[25] He also introducediOS 14,iPadOS 14, andmacOS 11 "Big Sur".
He made a cameo appearance within the September 2020 Apple Event, appearing briefly during a segment. However, he did not speak.[26]
At the November 2020Apple Special Event, a video of him “setting the mood” by waking a MacBook from sleep instantly became ameme.[27]
In November 2021, he appeared at theWeb Summit talking about the dangers of allowing sideloading in theiOS ecosystem.[28]
At WWDC 2022, Federighi introducediOS 16 andiPadOS 16, as well asmacOS 13 "Ventura".[29]
At WWDC 2023, he announcediOS 17,iPadOS 17,macOS 14 "Sonoma", and the developer and public betas for each operating system.[30]
At WWDC 2024, he announcediOS 18,iPadOS 18,macOS Sequoia, and the developer and public betas for each of them. Along with this, he introducedApple Intelligence, a set ofArtificial Intelligence features on Apple devices.[31]
Federighi is ofItalian descent.[32] Federighi is married as of 2014[33] and has four children.[34]