Jonathan (Jony) Paul Ive

Lead designer and conceptual mind behind many of Apple's most iconic products, including the iMac, MacBook Air, iPod, iPod touch, iPhone, and iPad, Ive is widely recognized as one of the most influential designers of his generation. Born in February 1967 in Chingford, London, he has served as the senior vice president of Industrial Design at Apple Inc. During Steve Jobs' tenure as CEO, Ive was given operational autonomy within the company, subject only to Jobs. After Jobs' death in October 2011, he reported to CEO Tim Cook.

Ive was brought up by his teacher father and attended the Chingford Foundation School before going on to attend Walton High School in Stafford. He then studied industrial design at Northumbria University (Newcastle Polytechnic at the time). Once enrolled at Walton, it became clear that he had attained many technical and drawing skills through his father. He met his wife, Heather Pegg, while in secondary school, and they married in 1987. They have twin sons and have lived in San Francisco.

Ive has said that he knew he was interested in "drawing and making stuff" from around age 14. The idea of design was long in his mind, but he was unsure about exactly what he would design. His interests were very broad — from furniture and jewelry to boats and cars. It was not until he met with various design experts that he was able to see some common ground in wanting to further his study in product design.

He has stated that discovering the Apple Mac during his later college years was a turning point for him. In particular, his positive perception of the Apple user experience was significant because he felt it represented a departure from the lack of creativity found in computer design at that time. After finishing university, Ive went on to become a co-founder of London design agency Tangerine. He was subsequently commissioned in 1992 by Apple's then Chief of Industrial Design Robert Brunner as a Tangerine consultant, before moving into full-time employment.

He was the designer of the 2nd generation of the Newton, the MessagePad 110, which took him to Taipei for the first time. Ive then gained his position at Apple in 1997 as the Senior Vice President of Industrial Design following the return of Steve Jobs, and subsequently headed the industrial-design team responsible for most of the company's significant hardware products. His first design assignment was the iMac, which helped pave the way to many other designs such as the iPod and eventually the iPhone. He proceeded to establish the firm's leading position with a series of functionally clean, aesthetically pleasing, and remarkably popular products after Jobs made design a chief focus of the firm's product strategy.

The work and principles of Dieter Rams, the chief designer at Braun from 1961 until 1995, influenced Ive's work. In Gary Hustwit's documentary film Objectified (2009), Rams states that Apple is one of only a handful of companies existing today that designs products according to Rams's ten principles of "good design." Ive has maintained his own laboratory with his appointed design team, and they worked to music provided by a close friend, DJ John Digweed. The majority of Apple employees were not allowed in the laboratory. According to the Steve Jobs biography, his design studio contained foam cutting and printing machines, and its windows were tinted.

The Sunday Times named Ive one of Britain's most influential expatriates on 27 November 2005, stating: "Ive may not be the richest or the most senior figure on the list, but he has certainly been one of the most influential as the man who designed the iPod." A 2006 Macworld magazine poll listed his joining Apple in 1992 as the sixth most significant event in Apple's history. Dan Moren, a writer at MacUser magazine (a subsidiary of Macworld), suggested in March 2006 that, when the time came for Steve Jobs to step down as CEO of Apple, Ive would be an excellent candidate for the position, justifying the statement by saying that he "embodies what Apple is perhaps most famous for: design." However, Jobs was succeeded by Tim Cook, the company's former COO.

Ive has been the recipient of many awards and accolades. On 11 January 2008, The Daily Telegraph rated him the most influential Briton in the United States. In 1999, he was named by the MIT Technology Review TR100 as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under age 35. In 2003, he was the winner of the Design Museum's Designer of the Year Award, the first given. In 2004, the BBC named him the "Most Influential Person on British Culture."

In June 2005, British monarch Queen Elizabeth II was revealed as being an iPod owner. In 2007, the UK edition of GQ magazine named Ive "Product Designer of the Year," and he also received the 2007 National Design Award in the product-design category for his work on the iPhone. In 2008, he was named the No. 1 "Most Influential Briton in America" by the Daily Telegraph, and Creativity Online included him in their "Creativity 50" list. That same year, he was awarded the MDA Personal Achievement Award for the design of the iPhone.

In 2009, Ive received an honorary doctorate from the Rhode Island School of Design and an honorary doctorate from the Royal College of Art. That same year, Fast Company placed him at No. 1 on their list of "100 Most Creative People in Business," the Daily Telegraph named him the second "Most Influential Briton in Technology," Forbes magazine listed him second among the "Most Powerful People in Technology," and The Guardian named him "Inventor of the Decade." In 2010, Bloomberg BusinessWeek listed him among the "World's Most Influential Designers," and CNN Money named him "Smartest Designer" in their "Smartest People in Tech" story. He was listed at No. 18 on "The Vanity Fair 100" list, Eureka of The Times group placed him No. 5 on their list of "Britain's Most Important Scientists," and Fortune named him the "world's smartest designer" for his work on Apple products. In 2011, the Daily Mail profiled Ive, hailing him as a "design genius."

He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2006 New Year Honours for services to the design industry. In the 2012 New Year Honours, he was elevated to Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) for "services to design and enterprise," and was knighted by Princess Anne at Buckingham Palace in a May 2012 ceremony. Ive described the honour as "absolutely thrilling" and said he was "both humbled and sincerely grateful." He personally holds almost 600 design patents.