Apple design guru Ive to leave company and return to UK ?

Jonathan Ive, the design guru responsible for the iPod, iPhone, iPad and MacBook Pro looks to be set to return to the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times reported that he is homesick but is facing the Apple board who don't want him to leave the company.

This rumour has been circulated by a friend of the Ive family who told the paper “Unfortunately he is just too valuable to Apple and they told him in no uncertain terms that if he headed back to England he would not be able to sustain his position with them.”

Apple will certainly not want to lose Ive, whose designs have been such an important part of Apple's success in recent years. Ive is said to want to educate his children in England but would commute from the UK to Cupertino for work. That is a hell of a trip to make on a regular basis.

Apple have refused to comment on the situation, as they normally do, prefering to deal with the matter internally. We can assume that Ive, who is a private man won't be too happy with the family friend speaking to the papers either.

Ive doesn't really need the money, he is apparently worth in excess of £50 million, with share options worth over £25 million.

KitGuru says: Ive would get a job anywhere, so it would be Apple's loss if they made him leave.

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