In a Sunday announcement underscoring an executive switch at Apple, the company has revealed that its SVP of Technologies, Bob Mansfield, is being shifted out of the executive team to work on CEO Tim Cook's `special projects' team.

The move initially led to speculations that Mansfield - who has shouldered Apple's toughest hardware-engineering jobs over the past decade - had apparently left Apple, because his biography had been removed from the company's executive profiles webpage.

The speculations stemmed from Mansfield's recent history with the company. He had announced his retirement from Apple in June 2012; and then returned to the company as the head of all wireless and semiconductor teams. In that position, he worked directly under Cook. Later, in August 2012, Mansfield took over an unspecified role at the company and was subsequently designated as the SVP of Technologies

Reports, at that time, had revealed that an "exorbitant" monthly salary of $2 million was offered by Cook to retain Mansfield at Apple. The $85.5 million pay package which Apple granted to Mansfield had made him the second-best-paid executive at any `Standard & Poor's 500' company in 2012.

About Apple's attempts to retain Mansfield on board at the company, former Apple manager Bob Borchers said: "Bob (Mansfield) is the anchor of Apple's hardware organization. That's why it was so important to bring him back."