Angela Ahrendts, the former CEO of Burberry, has officially joined Apple where she will run retail.

Apple's retail operation is amongst the most lucrative in the world. But after years of leading the industry, Apple's retail operations have grown to be a little stagnant. Ahrendts' job is to shake things up without shaking things up too much.

In January, Jeff Chu at Fast Company wrote the best profile of Ahrendts to date.

From that profile, here are the main things to know:

People love Ahrendts. Chu calls her an angel: "Ahrendts is no Miranda Priestly--and it's only a little hyperbolic to say that the angel wears Burberry." One of her school teachers said, "Angie was definitely a front-row-of-the-class kind of student. You were glad to see her coming through the door; when class started, you knew she was going to be ready." There's more gushing commentary about her in there, but this gives you a sense of it.

She's not a geek, but she has a vision. Here's SAP executive Vishal Sikka: "She is not a geek. She is not technical ... But she has a vision for things she wants to see, and she has a profound understanding of what technology can do for people."

At Burberry, she linked online behavior to offline behavior. Employees in Burberry stores have iPad minis with information on users online shopping habits at Burberry, as well as what they like in stores. You can even tell them if you don't like to be bothered while shopping in the store through your Burberry profile. Expect the Apple store experience to change.

She's going to be in charge of store. Apple's online and offline operations were siloed. Now they'll work together under Ahrendts.

Despite her fashion background, don't expect her to work on an iWatch, or other wearable tech. An "insider with knowledge of Apple's executive search" tells Chu, "She's there to run a retail store, and that's really hard."

She will be key in expanding Apple's stores in China. This is the most interesting part of the profile:

Expect a strong, sensible push to open new stores. While Apple is present only in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Chengdu, China has 15 cities with populations of more than 5 million. Burberry, which now has 71 stores on the mainland, is in 13 of them. (It also has seven stores in Brazil and eight in India; Apple has none in either.) Burberry generates about 14% of its global revenue in China, but that number is misleadingly low. First, if you see the stores as brand ambassadors, this isn't primarily about sales in the current fiscal year; it's about investing in brand awareness and prestige over the next 10 or 15. Second, Chinese shoppers don't just buy within China. Ahrendts recognized early that the nearly 100 million Chinese tourists who travel abroad each year are boosting sales in all 25 of Bur­berry's flagship stores, and Chinese shoppers in Bur­berry stores outside China spend, on average, 10 times what they spend back home.

Our emphasis added at the end. It also says that Ahrendts had people that spoke Mandarin at all Burberry stores to accommodate Chinese shoppers. She also said at an investor meeting, "Chinese New Year has the ability to be every bit as big as Christmas."

Go read the whole thing at Fast Company, it's great »