Apple's Ive Regains Management of Design Team After 2 Years

Apple Inc.’s Jony Ive, a key executive credited with the look of many of the company’s most popular products, has re-taken direct management of product design teams.

Ive, 50, was named Apple’s chief design officer in 2015 and subsequently handed off some day-to-day management responsibility while the iPhone maker was building its new Apple Park headquarters in Cupertino, California. “With the completion of Apple Park, Apple’s design leaders and teams are again reporting directly to Jony Ive, who remains focused purely on design,” Amy Bessette, a company spokeswoman, said Friday in a statement.

While Ive was involved in designing Apple’s “spaceship” campus, day-to-day management of the company’s hardware and software design teams was led by Alan Dye and Richard Howarth, who reported directly to Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook. Ive will now return to managing the teams directly.

Ive began leading Apple’s design team in 1996, before Apple co-founder Steve Jobs returned to the company as it was on the brink of bankruptcy. Over the past two decades, Ive’s designs, from the original iMac desktop computer in 1998 to the first iPod in 2001 and the iPad in 2010, have been a significant factor in Apple’s growth to the world’s most valuable public company. In 2012, a year after becoming CEO, Cook put Ive in charge of software design as well.

Apple Inc.’s Jony Ive, a key executive credited with the look of many of the company’s most popular products, has re-taken direct management of product design teams.

Ive, 50, was named Apple’s chief design officer in 2015 and subsequently handed off some day-to-day management responsibility while the iPhone maker was building its new Apple Park headquarters in Cupertino, California. “With the completion of Apple Park, Apple’s design leaders and teams are again reporting directly to Jony Ive, who remains focused purely on design,” Amy Bessette, a company spokeswoman, said Friday in a statement.

While Ive was involved in designing Apple’s “spaceship” campus, day-to-day management of the company’s hardware and software design teams was led by Alan Dye and Richard Howarth, who reported directly to Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook. Ive will now return to managing the teams directly.

Ive began leading Apple’s design team in 1996, before Apple co-founder Steve Jobs returned to the company as it was on the brink of bankruptcy. Over the past two decades, Ive’s designs, from the original iMac desktop computer in 1998 to the first iPod in 2001 and the iPad in 2010, have been a significant factor in Apple’s growth to the world’s most valuable public company. In 2012, a year after becoming CEO, Cook put Ive in charge of software design as well.