
Over 20 years ago, renowned designer Tom Karen helped to shape Apple’s future when he took on the task of talking a teenaged Jonathon Ive out of giving up on a future in industrial design. Ive’s father met Karen when the two served as judges for a student design competition. Concerned about his son’s future, the elder Ive asked Karen to intervene when it appeared that Jonathon was reconsidering his choice of career according to The Telegraph.
Karen said the following regarding the matter:
He got in touch with me a bit later and said, my son Jonathan's at university in Newcastle and is thinking about giving up his industrial design course. Maybe you could revive his interest?
The outcome was that Jonathan stuck to industrial design and made a huge success of it.
Source: The Telegraph