Leading Lady: Angela Ahrendts

Title: Senior VP at Apple Inc.

Age: 56

Nationality: American

Brief Bio: Hoosier, Ball State graduate, Dame of the British Empire (2014), and mother of three, Angela Ahrendts is the first female on Apple CEO Tim Cook’s executive team. She was recruited in 2014 from fashion house Burberry, and has been credited for bringing the brand back into the limelight. Her relationships in the fashion world helped her connect the tech/timepiece with style icons such as Karl Lagerfeld (house Chanel & Fendi) and supermodel Christy Turlington, who used the device to track her marathon training log.  Angela’s passion reaches beyond beautiful products.  She is passionate about people. “If you’re going to employ people, why not make them the differentiator? They’re not a commodity.”

“The more technologically advanced our society becomes, the more we need to go back to the basic fundamentals of human communication.”

Pearl of wisdom: “The universal language is not texted, emailed or spoken, it is felt.”

Vital stats: She is responsible for over 400 stores, online retail, and awarded $68 million in Apple shares. Since her time with the company an estimated 7.5 million Apple Watches have been sold…and counting.

They say: “She motivates people. She inspires people. And she is the sort of person who wants to see things succeed as a team. It’s a rare quality.” – Sir John Peace, chairman of Burberry and Standard Chartered

Sources:

Business Insider

Forbes

Indianapolis Women’s Conference, 2016

Porter

Vogue