Without giving too many details away, my friend was chosen by Jobs to take this role, pulled away from one at Apple where he was very happy, given a promotion and a raise, then fired 6 weeks later. The quote is from his blog (which I'll not post due to his desire to be discreet) but I trust him, and he says it's verbotem, and knowing his speech impediment very well, I find the story very believable. Further corroborated by having worked for a friend a few years back who had this same position as well (more successfully and for a longer period of time, neither knew each other btw) before he got fired on the spot while Jobs was outraged over something (my speculation is he spilled some spinach goop on a mock turtle neck and decided to take it out).