The British Museum (BM) is continuing to add notable names to its board of trustees with the appointment of the Apple trailblazer Jony Ive.
As former chief design officer at the tech giant, the London-born Ive led the team that designed the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. Last month his start up, known as io, was sold to OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, in a $6.5bn deal. In 2017, Ive was appointed chancellor of the Royal College of Art in London.
George Osborne, the museum chair, said in a fulsome social media post: “One of the founders of the modern age, Jony fuses design and technology in a way we need to as we redevelop the museum and reach new audiences.” Ive says: “I have adored the museum since I first visited as a child over 50 years ago.”
The British Museum board of trustees, who do not receive payment, comprises up to 25 members who have to deal with thorny issues such as the fate of the Parthenon Marbles. Earlier this year the television presenter Claudia Winkleman, who studied History of Art at Cambridge University in the early 1990s, joined the BM board along with the former BBC Today programme presenter Martha Kearney.