Scott Croyle, HTC’s SVP of design is leaving the company

HTC’s Senior Vice President of Design, Scott Croyle is leaving the Taiwanese company. Since joining the company's ranks in 2008 as head of industrial design and user experience, Mr. Croyle has been the man behind the eye-grabbing designs of the company’s smartphone flagships, including M7 and M8.
During a lengthy period of transition, Croyle will remain involved with HTC product development as s consultant. He will fulfill this role until he hands off all of his responsibilities, including the design of the next HTC flagship device.
Jonah Becker, the right hand of Mr. Croyle, is expected to fill in the vacancy and lead the HTC design studio in San Francisco.
HTC confirmed Mr. Croyle’s plans in a short statement. See it below.

"HTC remains at the forefront of smartphone innovation. Scott Croyle will be focusing on special projects and dedicated on next generation developments."

In a move which is likely related to Mr. Croyle’s future plans’ announcement, HTC promoted Drew Bamford, the man responsible for the Sense user experience, to head of HTC software and services. See the official statement below.

"Drew Bamford is an experienced and talented leader at HTC with solid track records in leading and building our user experience team. Effective immediately, in addition to his current duties in product development and user experience, Drew will lead HTC Creative Labs and focus on innovative new products and user experience strategies."

Mr. Bamford will report directly to Peter Chou, the CEO of HTC. The latter scaled back its corporate involvement a few months back in order to focus deeper on product design and development.
Considering the industry-wide accolades which HTC has enjoyed for its industrial design, there is little doubt about that the successor of Scott Croyle will have big shoes to fill. Here’s hoping that the company will weather the transition with no hiccups.