End of an era: Jony Ive removed from Apple's leadership page

The fact that legendary Apple designer Jony Ive is leaving the company has been known since June, but a small change on Apple's website makes it real.

Apple has removed Ive's profile from its Leadership page, marking his official departure from the company. Ive joined Apple in 1992, and was chief of design since 1996. He designed numerous wildly successful products, including the iPhone, the iMac and the iPod.

On the left: new page, sans Jony Ive. On the right, old page. Credit: Apple/Wayback Machine

I've checked Wayback Machine's archives and Ive's profile was definitely there on Nov. 22, so the change is quite fresh.

In its original notice on Ive's departure in June, Apple said Ive will "depart the company as an employee later this year." The post said Ive was to start an independent design company which will have Apple among its "primary" clients.

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"Apple will continue to benefit from Jony’s talents by working directly with him on exclusive projects, and through the ongoing work of the brilliant and passionate design team he has built," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement at the time.

A Wall Street Journal report, which Cook later called "absurd," claimed Ive had essentially withdrawn from Apple's management as early as 2015.

If you're missing Ive among those familiar Apple exec faces, there's still one place you can go. Cnet noted that Ive's profile is still there among the Executive Profiles on Apple's Investor Relations page.