DEST

A Distinguished Engineer, Scientist or Technologist (DEST) is a high-level Apple employee who has been recognized for extraordinary scientific or technical achievement.

Selection process
According to Apple Computer in 1999: "DEST-level employees are individuals who have shown prominent scientific/technical achievement and sustained outstanding performance, as well as a proven track record with Apple. They represent Apple internally and externally with demonstrated good judgment and leadership in their areas of expertise. DEST-level employees are nominated by their manager or vice president. Nominees are reviewed by the DEST committee consisting of five or six senior vice president level engineering executives and other high-level engineering executives. Each nominee must be approved by a two-thirds majority of the DEST committee."

List of DEST-level Apple staff
DEST-level employees are often assigned to challenging tasks and are usually not announced publicly. 
 * Steven Baker
 * Umesh Batra
 * Dominique Brezinski
 * Wei Chen
 * Stuart Cheshire
 * Sorin Cismas
 * Richard Crandall
 * Daniel Delling
 * Kenneth Dyke
 * Moises Goldszmidt
 * Tom Greening
 * Ron Hochsprung
 * Tomlinson Holman
 * Brian Howard
 * James Samir Ismail
 * Dan Jarvis
 * Timothy M. Johnson
 * Herng-Jeng Jou
 * Alex Kim
 * Vladlen Koltun
 * Brian Land
 * Ricardo Motta
 * Date Noorlag
 * Srdjan Sobajic
 * Wendell Sander
 * Bernard Semeria
 * Anand Shukla
 * Randy Ubillos
 * Wayne Westerman
 * Larry Yaeger
 * Jim Yurko
 * John Zhong