Apple Promotes Jony Ive to Chief Design Officer

Apple Inc.’s (NYSE:AAPL) lead designer, Jony Ive, will relinquish his day-to-day managerial duties, following his promotion to the newly created position of Chief Design Officer, according to a recent Bloomberg report.

Mr. Ive has been instrumental in his grafting and shaping of some of Apple’s most important products – he will still remain an integral part in the design efforts of Apple’s product suite, however his main focus will now shift towards new ideas and future initiatives.

Following the promotion, Mr. Ive’s duties will be partitioned between two deputies at Apple, beginning July 1, 2015 – Richard Howarth will become vice president of industrial design and Alan Dye will step into the role of vice president of interface design.

According to Neil Cybart, an independent analyst and founder of the Above Avalon website covering Apple’s business, in a recent statement on the promotion, “The new Chief Design Officer title is a symbolic gesture recognizing his strategic importance to Apple’s future.”

“In many ways, Jony’s new role is the closest thing yet to the unofficial role that Steve Jobs held at Apple. With day-to-day managerial duties being handed off to capable team members, Jony now has more time to focus on the big picture, although history would suggest he will remain quite involved with the details,” he added.