Until now, Ive’s job title has been Senior Vice President of Design. But I can reveal that he has just been promoted and is now Apple’s Chief Design Officer. It is therefore an especially exciting time for him.
Inside the fabled design studio (cloths over the long tables hiding the exciting new prototypes from prying eyes like mine) Jony has two people with him. They too have been promoted as part of Ive’s new role.
One is Richard Howarth, English as Vimto. “Richard is going to be our new head of Industrial Design,” says Jony. “And this is Alan Dye, the new head of User Interface.” Dye is a tall, amiable American.
Jony Ive promoted to Chief Design Officer
More a promotion (and recognition) for the two guys under Jony.
And perhaps some succession planning…
So basically taking over the Steve Jobs role
without all the cursing.
Marc Newson must be a independent contractor.
But it is a C-level position. The only other ones are Cook (CEO) and Maestri (CFO). I think that’s a big deal.
There’s some chatter about what Ive’s new role means for shareholders. If we’re talking Wall Street and AAPL, much ado will be made about nothing.
Nothing because I suspect Ive’s new title, CDO, is probably little more than the formalization of the role Ive, and those beneath him, has held for quite a while.
We have reason to suspect this because of recent Apple press; Ive has been doing more than designing Apple products recently. His involvement in Apple Campus 2, would be one huge distraction that we know of.
Steady on, Apple.