Roku hired chief architect Siri Brian Pinkerton, who left Apple to join the company as vice president of advanced development. Pinkerton spent just under three years at Apple as the Chief Engineer behind the operation of our favorite personal assistant.
A change of position and a change of perspective
At Roku, Pinkerton will be responsible for the Innovation, Technology and Software Development team, a position with a much broader scope than his activities at Apple. Recall that Pinkerton started working in the Cupertino company in January 2018, where, although invisibly, he made adjustments to the structure necessary for Siri to function. Here’s how Bloomberg broke the news:
Brian joined Roku in late 2020 to lead technical innovation and strategic software development. He brings over 30 years of experience in leadership roles focused on human issues in computer systems and natural language processing. Most recently, he was Chief Siri Architect at Apple.
Prior to joining Apple, Pinkerton served as Amazon’s vice president of research., as well as various positions in Lucidworks, Technorati, Excite, and America Online, always with research-driven companies.
It is not known who will occupy his position within Apple, but what little is known about the succession structure of the company’s executives, it is certain that the company already has more than one candidate ready. Over the past few years, Apple’s push for Siri has grown dramatically, devices like the HomePod depend entirely on it to function, and this in preparation for the future Apple Glass.
