Apple Industrial Design VP Evans Hankey Leaving Company [Report]

Apple's Vice President of Industrial Design, Evans Hankey, is leaving the company, three years after taking the role, according to Bloomberg.

Hankey was promoted to the role in 2019 to replace Jony Ive, reporting to Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams. Her departure was announced internally this week with Hankey telling colleagues she would remain at Apple for the next six months. A replacement hasn't yet been named.

Her pending exit marks the first time that Apple will be without a de facto design chief since Apple co-founder Steve Jobs retook control of the company in the late 1990s and appointed Ive to the job. Richard Howarth, a key designer on both Ive and Hankey’s teams, briefly held the role of head of industrial design, reporting to Ive, between 2015 and 2017.


“Apple’s design team brings together expert creatives from around the world and across many disciplines to imagine products that are undeniably Apple,” a spokesman said in a statement. “The senior design team has strong leaders with decades of experience. Evans plans to stay on as we work through the transition, and we’d like to thank her for her leadership and contributions.”

Sources say Alan Dye, Apple's head of design for software and user interfaces, isn't going anywhere. Additionally, Gary Butcher, a former top designer with Dye's division and current VP of Design for Airbnb, is returning to Apple.

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