May 19, 2009 11:12 AM
Apple designer Johnathan Ive voted ‘Most Creative Person in Business’
By igoncalves
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Jonathan Ive, Apple’s Senior VP of Industrial Design, has been working for Apple since 1997 when CEO Steve Jobs returned, and since then has headed the Design team that is responsible for most of the company's significant hardware products.
Ive, 42, has helped the company fuse technology and design together in an appealing way, as $32 billion in sales last year attest to.
Robert Brunner, Apple's previous design chief, hired Ive and recommended him as his successor.
"He likes to make perfect stuff," says Brunner, offering the first of three keys to Ive's success. That design perfection -- the first touch-screen smartphone, the dominant MP3 player, the first titanium laptop -- has become the benchmark by which companies in all industries judge themselves. "I've even had a plumbing company say, 'We want our showerhead to be our version of the iPod,' " says Brunner, now a partner at the design firm Ammunition. "Ive has this design ability combined with a craftsmanlike mentality."
Ironically enough, Microsoft's Melinda Gates was in second position for her work in the Melinda & Bill Gates Foundation that has worked on tech-oriented solutions to improve health and education. In third place was Shai Agassi, the CEO of Better Place that focuses on green transportation infrastructure based on electric cars.
For the complete list, check out http://www.fastcompany.com/100/mcp.html
Watch an interview with Jonathan Ive below:
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