Apple designer becomes Sir Jonathan Ive in New Year Honours

Jonathan Ive, the designer of some of Apple's most successful products, including the iPod and the iPhone, has received a knighthood in the New Year Honours.

Jonathan Ive
Jonathan Ive has received a knighthood in the New Year Honours

Ive, who is Apple's senior vice president of industrial design, receives a KBE from the Queen "for services to design and enterprise".

"I am keenly aware that I benefit from a wonderful tradition in the UK of designing and making," he said. "To be recognized with this honour is absolutely thrilling and I am both humbled and sincerely grateful."

"I discovered at an early age that all I've ever wanted to do is design," Ive added. " I feel enormously fortunate that I continue to be able to design and make products with a truly remarkable group of people here at Apple."

The 44-year-old was born in Chingford, north London, and studied design at the University of Northumbria. He joined Apple in 1992 and has been based in California ever since. Steve Jobs, who returned to Apple in 1996, appointed Ive to his current position in 1997.

Ive made his reputation with a string of successful product designs, starting with the candy-coloured, translucent iMacs. As the company's fortunes began to improve, Ive led his design team in creating the iPod, iPhone, iPad, MacBook Air and many more distinctive products.

According to Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs, the company's late chief executive gave Ive a unique position within the company. Jobs told Isaacson: "He's not just a designer. That's why he works directly for me. He has more operational power than anyone else at Apple except me. There's no one who can tell him what to do, or to butt out. That's the way I set it up."

His products have won a huge range of awards, including the prestigious Industrial Design Excellence Award in the USA, and the London Design Museum’s Designer of the Year award.

He lives near San Francisco with his wife, Heather, and their sons. He was given a CBE in 2006.