I just noticed this storyline about Katie Cotton from 2023. Don’t know how I missed it. She was the chief architect of the secrecy at Apple and was responsible for much of Apple’s public image.
PR pros, tech journalists remember former Apple comms chief Katie Cotton | PR Week
CUPERTINO, CA: Former Apple VP of worldwide corporate communications Katie Cotton died on April 6 at age 57.
Cotton retired from Apple in 2014 after 18 years with the company. She arrived in California from New Jersey in 1988 “ready to make her mark on the world. And so she did,” said her obituary.
Apple said in a statement that Cotton “was an extraordinary person and she made countless contributions over her two-decade career” at the company.
She was ranked number one on PRWeek’s Power List in 2010 along with late Apple cofounder and CEO Steve Jobs. She made the rankings again numerous times, including in 2012, following Jobs’ death in October 2011 at age 56 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
Cotton was also named to CNNMoney’s list of 50 Most Powerful Women in 2010, which noted that she “played a role in some of the most buzzed-about product launches in technology,” as well as her gatekeeper duties for Jobs. A 2011 profile of Apple executives by the website noted that “wherever Jobs is, Cotton isn’t far away.”
