Apple today has updated the biography of Lisa Jackson on its executive leadership webpage, noting that she is now Vice President of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives. Previously, Jackson was the VP of Environmental Initiatives only. The promotion will allow Jackson to take over leadership of all governmental affairs and public policy teams, according to Apple.
Tim Cook announced the change in a memo to employees, obtained by The Washington Post. In the memo, Cook explains that in her new position, Jackson will be even more able to work towards Apple’s central goal of leaving the world better than it was found.
Jackson’s executive bio on Apple.com also notes that she is now responsible for Apple’s policy programs when it comes to education, including its ConnectED program. The full addition to Jackson’s bio is below:
She is also responsible for Apple’s education policy programs such as ConnectED, its product accessibility work, and its worldwide government affairs function.
Earlier this year, Lisa Jackson was put in charge of boosting accessibility efforts, as well. Jackson originally joined Apple in 2013 having previously served as the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The executive reports directly to CEO Tim Cook and is centrally responsible for Apple’s efforts to minimize its impact on the environment and be as green and eco friendly as possible.
The full memo from CEO Tim Cook to his team is below:
Team,
At Apple, we’ve dedicated ourselves to leaving the world better than we found it. And we are making real progress. I am proud and inspired when I see how our products and our people are improving lives around the world. This is what happens when we focus on putting our core values front and center in our products and operations.
Today, Apple is an industry leader in renewable energy, elimination of toxics and protecting working forests. As you know, Lisa Jackson joined us two years ago and we could not have come this far without her leadership on environmental initiatives across our company.
There’s much more to do, not just on the environment, but on other issues we value such as human rights, education, and accessibility of our products to those with physical or developmental challenges. Apple can and will play an important role in each of these areas. Already, we are actively working with 114 schools in the U.S. through our ConnectED program. We are putting more accessibility tools in the hands of our wonderful app developers. And we have made our voice heard on public policy issues that affect us including clean energy and equality. These issues are critical not only to us, but to our customers, our shareholders, and in the communities where we all live and work.
So I’ve asked Lisa to lead our work in these areas and to take on a broader role as vice president of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives. Lisa will apply her passion and her unique skill set to integrate teams across Apple and make our impact even greater. As part of her new role, Lisa will also take over management of our worldwide Government Affairs function. Lisa already interacts regularly with governments around the world so she is a natural for this new role leading our public policy teams.
You can expect to see us create even more innovative programs which drive progress on these issues and others we care about most deeply.
Lisa will be the first to tell you, we have a long way to go and a lot to learn. But, like to many things at Apple, great challenges inspire us to work harder and aim higher.
Please join me in congratulating Lisa on her new role.
Tim
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Do we know she was actually promoted? I don’t see it anywhere in Tim’s memo and her title is still VP. With the Jony Ive memo Cook specifically said he was being promoted.
Lisa Jackson is an incredibly capable person. This was a very meaningful hire by Tim Cook.
In what possible way can you say that she is capable? Capable of fraud, yes I will grant you that (Google “richard windsor lisa jackson” and see what you get). This was a hire by Apple to buy it some political space in Washington.
Blah blah blah. She’s doing a good job at Apple.
Not a super retort @Victor O
This is so disappointing. Apple is really making a turn to the political left. Lisa Jackson committed fraud while in the Obama administration (keeping a separate email — using the name “Richard Windsor” to avoid having her email subpoenaed). It was a disgrace that Apple hired her, and a greater disgrace that she is being promoted. This is Tim Cook’s biggest weakness — he’s a latte liberal who makes a stand when it’s easy but won’t uphold these so called values where it counts — China, Saudi Arabia, etc.
Came here to say just this. No mention in the article, AT ALL, of her abysmal crooked behavior at EPA. That Apple even HIRED her is a disgrace. Not the kind of people we need administering America, or our favorite computing company. And every time Tim Cook speaks of “all the great people at Apple” I am reminded of her and think “bullshit.”
Meh – I did Google “Lisa Jackson” and “Richard Windsor.” Here is what I found from Politico, a fairly neutral source (as opposed to Fox news or the Washington Post).
@c_barrick, it sounds like your accusations of “fraud” seem to be somewhat fraudulent.
“For more than a decade, EPA administrators have been assigned two official, government-issued email accounts: a public account and an internal account,” EPA said in a statement to POLITICO. “The email address for the public account is posted on EPA’s website and is used by hundreds of thousands of Americans to send messages to the administrator. The internal account is an everyday, working email account of the administrator to communicate with staff and other government officials.”
High-ranking officials from George W. Bush’s EPA agree that the arrangement is nothing new, and say they were never under the impression that the internal account was a secret. Senior EPA leadership and EPA regional administrators had the email address, as did anyone to whom the administrator provided it, and the messages were all considered part of the public record.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/84112.html#ixzz3dxflF6UF
“EPA officials said Ms. Jackson kept the secondary address because her main email was published on the agency’s website, and she needed a way to conduct agency business that wouldn’t get lost in a flood of emails from the public that went to that official account. EPA said previous administrators, including those under Republican President George W. Bush, also had secondary emails for internal use.”
Big deal…
In answer to the “everybody does it” comments, unlike other instances of secondary email account use:
1. Lisa Jackson had to resign from a friendly administration because of the second account
2. She hid the email from oversight committees, contacted lobbyists, and hindered a Congressional investigation
What she did was significantly worse and illegal.
What a fluff job. What does this have to do with making the best technology (hardware & software)?