She's a 30-year veteran of Apple. Previously, she was in charge of HR. Her official new title is "Senior Vice President, Retail + People."
In fact, she's been at Apple so long, she's worked under five different CEOs: John Sculley, Michael Spindler, Gil Amelio, Steve Jobs, and now Tim Cook.
She's worked with Apple CEO Tim Cook closely in the past, and used to work with him in his operations group, where she was in charge of demand forecasting. Before she started to lead HR, she was a VP of operations.
Before Apple, she worked at IBM, like Cook, although she joined Apple nearly a decade before he did.
next slide will load in 15 secondsSkip AdSkip AdThe Apple store isn't new to her. In fact, she's helped launch both the first physical Apple store as well as the online store.
"Deirdre was part of the team that planned and launched Apple's very first online and retail stores. She has been a part of Retail's exciting expansion and every product launch since," Cook wrote in an internal memo to employees obtained by Business Insider.
She hasn't left Apple because she loves her job. "I stayed because I realized I was learning so much," O'Brien told the East Bay Times. "We feel like a small company every day. We are not worried about protecting things. It’s a very positive rather than a maintenance approach."
She started in her new job on Tuesday, according to an SEC filing. Her bio page on Apple's website has already been updated.