Jony Ive has had a hand in the design of Apple products going back decades, working on everything from the iMac, to the iPod, and now the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. His influence hasn’t stopped at hardware, and we saw Ive play a major role in leading the big UI shake-up that arrived with iOS 7 in 2013. It suffices to say that the Apple products we know today would probably look much different without the benefit of Ive’s vision and leadership. In recognition of the debt today’s Apple owes to Ive’s work, the company has just announced his promotion to a newly created role as Chief Design Officer.

As CDO, Ive will continue to drive the overall design decisions behind future Apple products, while passing Industrial Design and User Interface Design managerial responsibility to Richard Howarth and Alan Dye, respectively.

While a more senior role means different responsibilities for Ive, it doesn’t sound like we should expect any exterior-facing changes to the sort of Apple products we’ve been getting as of late – if anything, his new position will only empower Ive to further direct the evolution of the Apple experience. We expect to see some new developments along that course in just a couple weeks, as WWDC 2015 gets started on June 8.

Source: 9to5 Mac