The person behind Apple's secretive communications department, Katie Cotton, is retiring, leaving the company after 18 years. The move is the latest in a string of changes at the executive top of the company, and will undoubtedly leave a void for the company in the immediate future.
Cotton is largely credited with helping to build the Apple brand across the planet over the past two decades and is given credit for helping to keep much of Apple's corporate dealings behind closed doors.
Cotton "has given her all to this company for over 18 years," Apple said in a statement, adding that she has "wanted to spend time with her children for some time now."
Many view that Cotton's retirement is CEO Tim Cook's continued effort to remove the late Steve Jobs lieutenants from the inner workings of the company as he forges a new path for the company, which was lately mired in a no-hire agreement scandal that resulted in billions of dollars in settlements to tech workers in California.
Latest Apple happenings have seen former retail chief Ron Johnson and mobile software head Scott Forstall, leave the company, while Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer and hardware engineering head Bob Mansfield also are stepping down.
She is reported to have said the move was one of the most difficult in her career. "This is hard for me," she said. "Apple is a part of my heart and soul."
Cotton was instrumental in the rollout of almost all Apple products, from the iMac to the iPod and iPhone, driving and choreographing the media relations on these products. She is credited with guiding Jobs in his public appearances and creating a new mindset at the company that reached out to the media in order to ensure their specific message was being heard and reported on.
Critics of Cotton say that she helped to create the current secretive nature of Silicon Valley and the tech world's executives' continued absence from the public gaze unless on their own terms. This culture has led to a number of controversies and could have been a major part in her decision to step down as the tech culture around her changes at a breakneck pace.
Apple has not said who would replace her or when an announcement on a potential replacement of Cotton would take place.