Papermaster (Finally) Set To Join Apple

By Ken Kerschbaumer

It has been a long time coming, but Apple today says Mark Papermaster will join the company as senior VP of devices hardware engineering, reporting to CEO Steve Jobs, on April 24. He originally planned to join the company last fall, but legal issues surrounding whether he violated a non-compete clause by joining Apple from IBM had the move in limbo. The litigation between IBM and Mark Papermaster has been resolved.

Papermaster will lead Apple’s iPod and iPhone hardware-engineering teams. He has 25 years of product and technology experience and was a vice president at IBM. He has a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Texas and a master’s in electrical engineering from the University of Vermont. Papermaster is a member of the Advisory Council for the University of Texas Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.

According to IBM, IBM and Papermaster agreed on a resolution of the lawsuit
under which he may not begin employment with Apple until
April 24, 2009, six months after leaving IBM, and will remain subject
thereafter to all of his contractual and other legal obligations to that company,
including not to use or disclose its confidential
or proprietary information. After starting with Apple, Papermaster will be required to certify, in July and again in
October, that he has complied with those legal obligations. The
preliminary injunction will be replaced by a court order under which the court will have continuing jurisdiction over the matter, including
compliance enforcement, until Oct. 24, one year after Papermaster’s departure from IBM.