Is Ive Apple's Next CEO?

Posted by: Arik Hesseldahl on December 10, 2007

The Times of London has a speculative story on Jonathan Ive and suggests he looks a lot like an heir apparent to Apple CEO Steve Jobs. I don’t know if its a fair characterization, even though it is one that gets made a lot.

While I think its true that Ive and Jobs are on the same wavelength aesthetically, I don’t know what that necessarily means for the other skills that an Apple CEO would have to bring to bear to the job. There’s the public persona: Who else can do a product release speech like Jobs? No one else I can name. A great designer Ive may be, Peter’s profile of Ive from last year described him as a “reluctant celebrity.” Running Apple requires a willingness to not only embrace the inherent celebrity that comes with the job, but to enhance it, and use it.

When described as the “man behind the curtain,” I’m reminded of another great collaboration that at least gives me a comparison: Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. Ellington was the public face, while Strayhorn was the composer behind much of the music. Ellington often described Stayhorn as being some the same creative wavelength as himself. They understood each other musically in way that allowed Ellington to take all the bows, while allowing Strayhorn to stay in the background as he appeared to prefer.

Jobs clearly thrives with a good deal of public attention and has the gravitas and charisma needed to bend it to his will. There’s no evidence among Ive’s few public appearances that he has this quality in public. Then again, he may have some as-yet unseen star quality in public.

Either way, Jobs is going to be 53 in less than three months, which suggests to me that assuming he remains healthy, he could stay on the job for at least another decade if not longer, provided that he wants to, which is another matter entirely. As long as Jobs loves going to work every day, anyone with their eye on the CEO job will likely have a long wait.

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