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Has someone accidentally deleted the profile of one of Apple's most important figureheads or has Mr. Mansfield decided to step aside?
Another option could be a transition into a less-visible role prior to his expected departure date of sometime in 2014....
Was this expected? I figured after he returned he'd be sticking around for a bit.
I believe he was committed to staying "at least" through 2014. I'm not sure of the details of it all, of course. I just thought it could be a possibility--it would be odd for him to leave less than a year after being convinced to stick around for a bit (in my opinion; I don't know the guy.)
That's an excellent question, and one that this submission is definitely not going to answer.
Geeze, I'm reminded of Kremlinology; Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kremlinology) puts it well:

"During the Cold War, lack of reliable information about the country forced Western analysts to "read between the lines" and to use the tiniest tidbits, such as the removal of portraits, the rearranging of chairs, positions at the reviewing stand for parades in Red Square...."

When I clicked on "Senior VP Bob Mansfield removed from Apple's leadership page", I was sort of expecting some kind of speculation on why Bob Mansfield was removed, what it might mean for Apple, maybe even a clue as to who exactly Bob Mansfield is and what he does at Apple. Instead I got a link to the leadership page. See, he's not there!

"Senior VP Bill the Cat removed from Apple's leadership page" would've carried just as much information.

True that, I was just a bit puzzled when I found out. Tried looking around for more details regarding any speculation but no updates from any major sources.
Here is a page mirrored at archive.org, now 404ing on Apple's website, that will provide at least a little more information on Bill the Cat.

http://web.archive.org/web/20130723144507/http://www.apple.c...

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Mansfield, he was retiring as of 13 months ago but stayed on for some reason, possibly because of Scott Forstall's departure. Given the circumstances, his may have been an interim role while Apple searched for a long-term solution.

From MacRumors:

> According to Reuters reporter Poornima Gupta, "Bob Mansfield is no longer on Apple's exec team but will remain at Apple working on special projects reporting to Cook."

> ...

> Last year, Apple announced that Mansfield would be retiring, but several months later announced he would instead be staying at the company. Later, it leaked that Tim Cook had faced an "insurrection" after Mansfield announced his retirement, and Cook gave him an extremely generous benefits package.

So he's moved on to whatever special arrangement has been made for him?

http://www.macrumors.com/2013/07/28/apple-senior-vice-presid...

Not knowing anything about Apple leadership in the first place I was struck by the male homogenity on that page.
Yeah, my first thought was "wow look at all these old white guys". If the pictures weren't right next to each other I'd probably have trouble telling any two of them apart.
If you think that's an acceptable thing to say, :%s/white/any other race/g and re-read your comment.
Does everything have to be racist nowadays?

I'm an "old white guy". I wasn't offended.

That's great, I'm happy for you. However, implying that people of the same race look alike as to be indistinguishable from one another is offensive to a lot of people.
He was essentially pulled out of the retirement to stay on for a while so this is not that surprising.
Did anyone notice the only person not smiling in this page? Seems to be really sad while taking that pic.
There are several persons not smiling on the page.