Doug Guthrie

"Doug Guthrie recalls the first time he met Mahe. He was one of the people advocating for an official head of China, but he didn’t play a role in the selection process or know who she was. So he was surprised when, on one of his trips to Cupertino, she asked him to come by her office. It was after Chinese New Year, in early 2017, a time when Guthrie had developed real influence with senior executives. He walked to her office in Infinite Loop and exchanged pleasantries. Mahe gazed at him and said, “So I guess I have you to blame?” Guthrie’s eyes widened; the question felt aggressive. “We’ve never met,” he responded. “Have I done something?” And Mahe said, “Well, I’m getting on a plane and going to China, and it’s because Tim [Cook] said, ‘You better listen to Doug Guthrie.’ ” Within a few minutes it became clear Mahe wasn’t just referring to a typical jaunt over to China; she’d been asked to take on a major career challenge, one that would involve moving to Shanghai with her non-Chinese-speaking husband and their children."

"Lawyers in Cupertino were frantic and confused about China’s newest ordinance—the labor dispatch law of mid-2014, which limited the share of temporary workers a company could employ to just 10 percent. The new rules wouldn’t be enforceable until March 2016, but as soon as they were Apple’s most important suppliers would be in violation. The lawyers looked at each other in dismay. “There’s no way we can comply with this!” When they called up Doug Guthrie in China, the professor’s response only confused them further. “That’s the point,” he told them. “You’re *supposed* to be out of compliance.” They’d protest: “How does that make any sense?” And Guthrie would explain: “Because you’re supposed to go figure out what the mayor of Zhengzhou wants from you.”"