Sir Jonathan Ive has been crowned British Visionary Innovator in a competition, run by the Intellectual Property Office.
Ive won by a large margin with almost fifty per cent of the vote (46.6%). In second place was Sir Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the world wide web) with 18.8 per cent of the vote. James Goodfellow OBE (the inventor of PIN technology and the cash machine) was in third place with 15.2 per cent of the vote.
Apple’s senior vice president of industrial design was also up against industrial designer Sir James Dyson; graffiti artist Banksy; Michael Aldrich, who invented online shopping; Sir Ian Wilmut, the scientist famous for cloning Dolly the Sheep; Harry Potter author JK Rowling; and TV producer Simon Cowell.
Voters also suggested the following nominations: Sir Richard Branson (Entrepreneur – Virgin); Vivian Westwood (Fashion Designer); Peter Jones (Serial Entrepreneur); Vic Reeves (Comedian); Sir Clive Sinclair (Entrepreneur and Inventor – ZX80); The Monty Python team (Comedy writers/performers); Alan Turing (Mathematician – Turing Machine). See the complete list here.
The competition, to celebrate World Intellectual Property Day 2012, aims to celebrate people who have achieved considerable success or developed innovative products, services or designs.
UK born Jony Ive is the leading designer behind a raft of Apple products including the iMac, MacBook, Mac Pro, MacBook Air, iPod, iPhone, and the iPad. Ive was born in Chingford, London and holds a Bachelor of Arts and an honourary doctorate from Newcastle Polytechnic. He has been recognized with numerous design awards including being named Designer of the Year by the Design Museum London in 2003 and being awarded the title Royal Designer for Industry by The Royal Society of Arts.
Author: Karen Haslam, Editor
Macworld editor since 2008, Karen has worked on both sides of the Apple divide, clocking up a number of years at Apple's PR agency prior to joining Macworld two decades ago.
Karen's career highlights include interviewing Apple's Steve Wozniak and discussing Steve Jobs’ legacy on the BBC. Her focus is Mac, but she lives and breathes Apple.