• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, December 17, 2015

Apple has promoted Jeff Williams to the position of Chief Operating Officer.

Previously, SVP, operations at the tech giant, Williams recently distinguished himself as a key member of the Apple Watch team.

“Jeff is hands-down the best operations executive I’ve ever worked with,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a prepared statement.

Of note, Cook served as Apple’s COO prior to taking the company’s reins, last year.  

Additionally, Phil Schiller, SVP, worldwide marketing, will now oversee the App Store across all Apple platforms, while, Johny Srouji is joining Apple’s executive team as SVP, hardware technologies.

Schiller will now lead nearly all developer-related functions at Apple, in addition to his other marketing responsibilities including worldwide product marketing, international marketing, education and business marketing.

Cook called the App Store an “increasingly important part of our business,” on Thursday.

Williams first joined Apple back in 1998 as head of worldwide procurement. In 2004, he was named vice president of Operations. He has also overseen Apple’s entire supply chain, service and support, and social responsibility initiatives since 2010.

The App Store now encompassed for software platforms including iOS, OS X, watchOS, and tvOS.