One of Apple's tenured board members is leaving his role after 17 years and Apple is taking advantage of the opportunity shore up female representation in the boardroom.
Bill Campbell, one of Steve Jobs' top advisers, is leaving his post. The replacement will be Susan Wagner, a founding partner with money manager BlackRock.
Across many media outlets, criticism over the failure to appoint women to companies' top leadership positions has left many tech companies playing defense.
Wagner will be Apple's second woman on the eight-person board of directors after Andrea Jung, former Avon CEO, was appointed to the company's board in 2008.
The 73-year-old Campbell has been a mainstay with Apple since the 1980s when he came to the company as a marketing executive. He joined the board in 1997 after Jobs returned to the company as CEO.
"Bill's contributions to Apple are immeasurable and we owe him a huge debt of gratitude," said Tim Cook, Apple's current CEO.
"Working with Steve and Tim has been a joy," said Campbell. "The company today is in the best shape that I have seen it, and Tim's leadership of his strong team will allow Apple to continue to be great going forward."
With Wagner's appointment, Apple hopes it will add a financial guru who can assist the company as it looks to make more acquisitions. Wagner is believed to be a major guiding adviser on how to develop the Beats Electronics take over earlier this year that was reported to cost the company $3 billion, the most expensive deal ever for Apple.
The movement of top leadership positions at Silicon Valley companies has received much media attention, especially after studies showed the overall lack of women in the industry.
