Meta hires away Apple’s top design exec

Apple just lost a top design talent.

Meta has hired Alan Dye, who was the head of Apple’s human interface design team. The company is filling his position with Stephen Lemay, who CEO Tim Cook told Bloomberg “has played a key role in the design of every major Apple interface since 1999.”

Before being poached by Meta to become its chief design officer, Dye worked at Apple since 2006, where he oversaw projects including Liquid Glass and Vision Pro. By the end of his tenure, Dye reported directly to Cook.

His departure is the latest in a game of musical chairs for top design roles at Apple. Apple’s former longtime chief design officer Jony Ive left the company in 2019, and his replacement, Evans Hankey, left in 2022 and wasn’t replaced. On the org chart, the remaining members of Apple’s industrial design team reported to COO Jeff Williams.

Bloomberg reports that Dye will be creating a new design studio at Meta, where he’ll oversee the design for “hardware, software, and AI integration for its interfaces.” For Meta, Dye’s hiring is proof the company is serious about designing hardware that can compete in the ongoing race to build the first great AI gadget. It will put him in direct competition with his former colleague Ive, whose company io was bought by OpenAI in May for $6.4 billion with the goal of building the next great user interface.