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TOI correspondent from Washington: Tech giant Apple on Wednesday elevated Moradabad-born Sabih Khan as its chief operating officer (coo), often considered the #2 in a company’s leadership hierarchy, putting yet another Indian-American executive on track to lead a major tech global corporation. Khan, 59, a 30-year veteran of Apple, and currently its senior vice president of Operations, will succeed Jeff Williams as part of a long-planned succession, the company said, highlighting his expertise in supply chain management. His elevation comes at a crucial time when Apple is transitioning a significant portion of its iPhone manufacturing from China to India. Apple’s move comes in the teeth of opposition and even threats from MAGA supremo Donald Trump, who is virtually coercing the tech giant to forgo India and bring back manufacturing to the US. There is also profound distrust of foreign-born executives in more nativist sections of MAGA. Two of the top five US corporations Microsoft and Google/Alphabet are currently led by India-born execs Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai. As of fiscal year ending March 2025, approximately 20 percent of Apple’s global iPhone production now comes out of India, with a production value of around $22 billion, up from 14 percent in 2024. Much of the India operations involves assembling the phones, with China still having a stranglehold on component manufacturing and reluctant to cede its dominance in the area.Describing Sabih as a “brilliant strategist who has been one of the central architects of Apple’s supply chain,” Apple CEO Tim Cook, carefully avoiding any reference to India, said while overseeing Apple’s supply chain, he has helped pioneer new technologies in advanced manufacturing, overseen the expansion of Apple’s manufacturing footprint in the United States, and helped ensure that Apple can be nimble in response to global challenges. A separate factsheet from Apple underscored his role in the company’s global supply chain for the past six years, ensuring product quality and overseeing planning, procurement, manufacturing, logistics, and product fulfillment functions. “He has advanced our ambitious efforts in environmental sustainability, helping reduce Apple’s carbon footprint by more than 60 percent. Above all, Sabih leads with his heart and his values, and I know he will make an exceptional chief operating officer,” Cook said. Born in 1966 in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, India, Khan moved with his family to Singapore during his school years. He later relocated to the US for his higher education, earning dual bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Mechanical Engineering from Tufts University and a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), the oldest engineering school in the US (est 1824), predating IIT Roorkee (est 1847).Before joining Apple in 1995, Khan worked at GE Plastics (now SABIC) as an applications development engineer. He rose through the ranks at Apple, becoming a central figure in the company’s global supply chain.
