AppleInsider Staff
Apple made its promotion of Jony Ive to Chief Design Officer a bit more official on Wednesday in an update to the Apple Leadership webpage, while at the same time adding executive profiles for design underlings Alan Dye and Richard Howarth.
Ive's new executive profile now lists the star designer as Apple's Chief Design Officer, a C-level position first unveiled in May.
As previously reported, Ive's bio says he is responsible for all design at Apple, listing "the look and feel of Apple hardware, user interface, packaging, major architectural projects such as Apple Campus 2 and Apple's retail stores" as areas under his purview. Ive will also handle "new ideas and future initiatives," Apple says.
Prior to his promotion, Ive was named SVP of Design in 2013, a title referencing dual roles as head of hardware and human interface design. As CDO, Ive is still involved with both departments, but should have more leeway to work on Apple's broader design language.
Alongside Ive, the Apple Leadership webpage added two slots for newly minted vice presidents Alan Dye and Richard Howarth. Dye, who worked at Kate Spade and Ogilvy & Mather before joining Apple's marketing team in 2006, takes the title of VP of User Interface Design. Howarth, now VP of Industrial Design, was hired by Apple in 1996 and worked on "every Apple product since the original iMac," as well as taking lead design roles in iPhone and Apple Watch.
Ive previously intimated that he would be in charge of the divisions now under Dye and Howarth, though it seems the VPs will answer directly to Cook.
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20 Comments
Ok it seems weird to me that these two new VPs got added to Apple's executive page. In the Telegraph interview with Stephen Fry Jony Ive said he was still in charge of both teams as CDO. But adding these two guys to the executive page would indicate they report directly to Tim Cook. So one, it seems odd that Ive would say he's in charge of both if those VPs don't report to him and few if Ive decided he no longer wanted direct reports why would he say he's still in charge of both and why wouldn't Apple move these VPs under Craig Federighi and Dan Riccio? Pretty soon Apple's leadership page is going to get as long as Microsoft's used to be where they listed every corporate VP under the sun. It just seems very odd to me that a VP of UI and ID would report directly to Tim Cook.
He's got that dream job that Steve wanted!
[quote name="Suddenly Newton" url="/t/187019/apple-officially-recognizes-jony-ives-promotion-adds-vp-of-design-bios-to-leadership-webpage#post_2743260"]He's got that dream job that Steve wanted![/quote] If he doesn't have any direct reports then my bet is once Campus 2 is finished he retires and perhaps joins the Apple board. Remember Avie Tevanian was promoted to Chief Software Technology Officer in July 2003 but Bertrand Serlet was brought on to run software engineering. March 2006 he left the company. I do find it interesting that these design VPs were not slotted under hardware and software engineering. I guess Apple is making a statement that design will never report to engineering and will always have a direct line to the CEO.
[quote name="Rogifan" url="/t/187019/apple-officially-recognizes-jony-ives-promotion-adds-vp-of-design-bios-to-leadership-webpage#post_2743250"]Ok it seems weird to me that these two new VPs got added to Apple's executive page. In the Telegraph interview with Stephen Fry Jony Ive said he was still in charge of both teams as CDO. But adding these two guys to the executive page would indicate they report directly to Tim Cook. So one, it seems odd that Ive would say he's in charge of both if those VPs don't report to him and few if Ive decided he no longer wanted direct reports why would he say he's still in charge of both and why wouldn't Apple move these VPs under Craig Federighi and Dan Riccio? Pretty soon Apple's leadership page is going to get as long as Microsoft's used to be where they listed every corporate VP under the sun. It just seems very odd to me that a VP of UI and ID would report directly to Tim Cook.[/quote] The 'bozo explosion' in full swing?
[quote name="TheWhiteFalcon" url="/t/187019/apple-officially-recognizes-jony-ives-promotion-adds-vp-of-design-bios-to-leadership-webpage#post_2743264"] The 'bozo explosion' in full swing?[/quote] I get why Apple added that VP layer because it was an easy way to get women and people of color on the executive leadership page. But why Tim Cook has so many people reporting directly to him I don't understand. I can't imagine he has time to be sitting in design review meetings. And why would the guy running chip technology report to Cook and not the SVP of hardware engineering?