Senior Vice President of Design, Watch, & Health, Apple Inc.
Press Conference: Apple Awards an Additional $250M from Advanced Manufacturing Fund
Apple Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams joins Corning General Manager and Vice President John Bayne and Harrodsburg ...
About Jeffrey Williams
At Apple’s September 2024 event, Williams introduced the Apple Watch Series 10, describing it as “the biggest wearable display we've ever built, even slightly bigger than Apple Watch Ultra!” He stated that “Apple Watch is an indispensable companion, and the display is central to everything you do with it.” During a December 2024 Red Chair Chat at NC State, Williams reflected on his career, noting that he joined Apple in 1998 when the company “had just lost a billion dollars, was almost, had to borrow money to make payroll.” He said that ideas at Apple “surface sort of anywhere across Apple” and that the company does not have “the idea department or the innovation department.” He also recounted receiving daily letters from Apple Watch users about the device’s impact on their health, saying it “helped save their life.” Williams has a history of discussing Apple’s manufacturing and health initiatives. In 2017, he announced a $200 million commitment from Apple’s Advanced Manufacturing Fund to Corning’s Harrodsburg, Kentucky facility for advanced glass technologies, stating, “It’s only fitting that the first commitment from that fund be for Corning.” He described the original iPhone’s shift from plastic to glass, saying Steve Jobs insisted “when it ships in June, it needs to be glass.” In 2015, Williams called the car “the ultimate mobile device” and said Apple explores “all kinds of categories” where it can “make a huge difference.” He has emphasized Apple’s vertical integration, stating, “I know of no other company as vertically integrated,” and noted the company’s focus on health, saying, “We view the fact that you wear this, we have an opportunity and maybe even a moral obligation to try to help people live a healthier life.”
Transcript (4 segments)
A
Amy0:02
All right, good afternoon, thank you everyone for joining us today. We're excited to be here in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, and we're welcoming our guests that are here with us today. As many of you know, Harrodsburg is the advanced manufacturing facility for glass for Corning Incorporated. We're the longest-running US manufacturing facility in Corning, which is a tremendous accomplishment. Today we're thrilled to have our guests from Apple with us, and we're even more thrilled to continue the innovation work with them that has been going on for well over a decade. With that, I'd like to take a moment and introduce our senior vice president and general manager, John Bane. John is an advocate and a champion for the Harrodsburg plant, and we appreciate having him here today along with Apple to celebrate all the life-changing innovation and work that we do here within Harrodsburg and across Corning Incorporated. With that, please join me in a warm welcome for John Bane.
J
John Bane1:17
Thank you, Amy. Great feedback to the plant. Good morning, everyone. It's great to welcome Jeff and his team back to Harrodsburg. Some of you may not know, but Jeff was there in the earliest days of Gorilla Glass. In fact, he was there on day one with Wendell when Apple was defining the category of smartphone, and we were defining the category of strength and cover glass at that time. So Jeff is linked in the Gorilla Glass story, and you can see that in some of the pictures when you walk into the plant. It's great when Apple comes to visit us because it combines four things we truly care about: one, deep collaboration with an incredibly important strategic customer; two, our focus on innovation and new products; three, our commitment to advanced manufacturing—doing manufacturing that's never been done in the world before right here in this plant; and four, for our employees. So it's truly a special day when Apple comes to visit us. Now, last Tuesday Apple had a special day when they announced all their new products. It's an added benefit as a Corning employee because one, we're consumers of those products, so it's great to see the new phones and tablets and services we get to consume. But secondly, as a supplier to Apple, we have tremendous pride in knowing that we played a small part, a small part but an important part, in helping bring some of those products to market. Now, this plant for 67 years has been doing incredible things important to Corning, important to our community, and no more so in the last 20 years with our commitment to LCD glass and now strengthened cover glass, which has changed the way people create content, consume content, communicate with each other, interact with each other. And I would argue the work you've done over the last three years has been your best work, with these advanced manufacturing investments and new technologies in support of Apple. You inherited a legacy in this plant, and you've only made it that much better. You can take so much pride in that. So before I turn over to Jeff, I just want to thank Jeff and the Apple team for the trust and confidence they've shown in Corning since day one, every day over the last 12 years, and we're going to earn that trust and confidence every day going forward. So please help me in welcoming Jeff Williams.
J
Jeffrey Williams3:48
It is so good to be back here in Harrodsburg. As I was flying in last night and the sun was setting over the beautiful fields with the horses, it's just wonderful. And very few people would appreciate that in the middle of horse country, in this small town, is the most advanced technology work in the world in glass. You know, a couple years ago I was here, and I recognized some of the faces. It's so great to see Amy and John again. We announced an investment here, and just last week, as John mentioned, we announced two new phones, and they have the toughest glass in the world in a smartphone, thanks to the work that you guys do here. It's really, really wonderful. And John said you guys played a small part in this, and I say you played a huge part. I really do. The iPhone has given people superpowers in terms of connecting with family and all kinds of stuff. People hold that device, and I'm a big believer in the connection that you have with something. That physical connection is important. All over the world, what people are holding is the work you do here. The feel you have and the strength of the glass—it's here. And on our new iPhone that we launched last week, I think you guys have at least seen pieces of it, maybe not all together, but it's really stunningly beautiful, and it feels wonderful. It's not just the front, but the back. As you know, the whole back of the iPhone is sculpted out of a single sheet of Corning glass, and it's really, really wonderful. I love coming here. To echo a couple of John's comments to talk about the various pieces, I would echo some of them, but I would add the thing that I see when I'm here is I see passion and I see pride in the work that people do here. That's what's important to Apple. If you ask me what the most important thing about people at Apple is, I think the textbook answer would be innovation, and I would say no, no. It's actually a really deep care in what you do, no matter what the task is. Just a really deep sense of care in what you do, and that's what I see here. Some people credit, in fact in talking with Wendell, he said, 'You guys helped save Harrodsburg with the iPhone, since so much of the production goes to Apple that Apple helped save,' and I say, 'No, no, you got that wrong, Wendell.' It's the people here. It's the innovation and the technology that made our iPhone different, and we come here because the work you guys do is so great. So I just wanted to say thank you. We had a fantastic announcement, and we're going to continue to work together. We're not going away. We believe in the work you're doing and are thrilled to be a part of it. So thank you.
J
John Bane7:40
Thank you again, Jeff. Really appreciate those kind words and John's also. And thanks to all of you for coming out. I would echo what both John and Jeff have said. It is a phenomenal organization. Please look around and just take note of the tremendous pride that all of you have and that you should continue to have. The talent and the abilities of those of you that I'm looking at now is a phenomenal thing. Really glad to be a part of it, and we're glad to continue to support Apple and to collaborate with Apple. Look forward to many more years going forward. As John said, we'll continue to work with them throughout the rest of the afternoon. We would ask you if you'd like to join for some cake and refreshments back in the atrium, back by the cafe. You're welcome to join us for that following this event. Again, thanks again for coming out to welcome our customers and to talk to all of us. Take care.