Apple has confirmed to the New York Times that Jay Blahnik, the company’s vice president of Fitness Technologies, will retire in July. Here are the details.
Jay Blahnik will retire after 13 years at Apple
He New York Times information that “Jay Blahnik, Apple’s vice president of fitness technologies, will retire this summer (…),” ending his 13-year career at Apple.
When Blahnik united Apple in 2013, most assumed would be involved with the Apple Watch, which had not yet been announced.
That was partly correct, as Blahnik’s contributions went beyond the Apple Watch. despite being accredited To create the device’s activity rings, he also oversaw the development of the Apple Fitness+ subscription service, which launched in 2020.
Here’s a video from 2022 of Blahnik giving iJustine a tour of the Apple Fitness+ studio:
However, more recently things took a turn. Last August, The New York Times reported that “along the way, Mr. Blahnik created a toxic work environment,” said nine current and former employees who worked with or for Mr. Blahnik and spoke about personnel matters on condition of anonymity.
In the report, the TimesSources claimed his behavior “contributed to the decisions of more than 10 workers to apply for extended medical or mental health leaves from 2022, around 10 percent of the team.”
The report goes on to detail multiple cases in which employees say Blahnik behaved inappropriately, including allegations of verbal abuse, sexual comments and retaliation, and at least one case in which Apple settled a sexual harassment complaint.
Since then, Blahnik has largely stayed out of the spotlight, while an internal Apple investigation reportedly “found no evidence of wrongdoing.”
Today, however, the NOW reported:
In an email sent to employees this week, Apple said Blahnik, 57, will retire in July “to spend time with his family and make an exciting move to New York City.”
Apple has yet to confirm whether the company will look for someone else to replace him as vice president of Fitness Technologies, or whether his duties will be redistributed among existing executives.
Last November, Bloomberg reported that the future of Apple Fitness+ was “under review”, as it remained one of the company’s “weakest digital offerings”.
At the time, Mark Gurman said the division would be under new management and that Apple’s health chief Sumbul Desai would add Fitness+ to its portfolio as part of a broader reorganization after Eddy Cue took over the company’s health and fitness teams.
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