Apple is cutting one of its most high-profile executive positions. According to a new report released today, Apple is eliminating the “chief industrial design” role as part of a broader shakeup. This role was formerly held by Jony Ive, and more recently held by Evans Hankey.
Hankey has been Apple’s top product designer, serving as vice president of industrial design, since 2019. She succeeds Jony Ive, who left Apple in 2019. In this structure, Hankey is responsible for hardware design, while that Alan Dye is a software design manager and holds the title of vice president of human interface design
Hankey, however, is expected to leave Apple in the coming months, as previously announced in October, after three years in the role.
Bloomberg Now reports that after Hankey’s departure, Apple won’t appoint a new executive to fill the “Chief Industrial Design” position. This is a significant change in Apple’s leadership structure, as the “vice president of industrial design” has been around for decades.
The report says that Apple’s “core group of industrial designers” will now report to Jeff Wiliams, Apple’s chief operating officer. Under the previous structure, Hankey reported to Williams, but the core design team reported to Hankey.
With this change, Apple’s “senior” designers will get “greater roles”, but none of them will be elevated to high-level “head of industrial design”.
Instead, the company’s core team of about 20 industrial designers will report to Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer. The company will also give larger roles to a group of Apple’s most senior designers. Hankey has reported to Williams since taking the job in 2019, when top designer Jony Ive left to start his own business.
This group will get bigger roles in the change. But Williams decided that no one would be appointed as the new leader and that the entire team would report to him. The move ties Apple’s operations group more closely to design — an arrangement that has angered some members of Apple’s creative staff. It will also elevate Williams, who is seen as a possible successor to CEO Tim Cook.
Williams has an increasingly wide range of responsibilities at Apple.
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