ONCE TOUTED AS ‘APPLE’S NEW VOICE,’ DENISE YOUNG SMITH HAS FOUND HER OWN

As the head of human resources for Apple’s retail stores and one of the few African American women who has ever held a role on Apple’s —or any major tech company’s—executive team, Denise Young Smith’s crown of dreadlocks was no afterthought. In fact, she says, “Locs gave me a way to be truthfully seen. They were not as common or considered as fashionable back then as they are now, and they said, ‘You’re going to have to work harder to try to ignore that I’m a black woman in places where you’re not used to seeing me or us.’”