Reports say that Apple has hired Amazon executive and search technologist William Stasior to run its Siri department.
At the online retail giant, Stasior has been in charge of A9, Amazon’s search and search advertising unit. The former AltaVista exec co-founded the independent company and has run it since Udi Manber left for Google.
Stasior’s resume is an impressive one, The MIT PhD has also taught at the institution, as well as held positions at Oracle, Netcentives and AltaVista. He landed at Amazon in 2003, coming on board as its director of search and navigation.
Stasior will take charge of Siri, Apple’s famous, and sometimes maligned voice-controlled personal assistant, featured on the company’s latest devices.
The high-profile app has recently lost some of the talent that created and guided it. Adam Cheyer, who co-founded the voice recognition software company prior to its acquisition by Apple in 2008, left in September of this year, while former Siri CEO Dag Kittlaus departed in October of 2011.
Stasior will presumably be leading the charge to strengthen Apple’s search and advertising technology, to allow it to better compete with industry rival Google.
