LIFE

Incoming Apple exec Angela Ahrendts to be named Dame of the British Empire

By Dana Hunsinger Benbow
dana.benbow@indystar.com

It’s not as if Angela Ahrendts needs another fancy title. She’s the CEO of Burberry. She’s the soon-to-be head exec of retail operations at Apple.

But this Ball State University grad who grew up in New Palestine is about to be honored with another distinction: Dame of the British Empire.

It’s an honor approved by Queen Elizabeth, but because Ahrendts is a non-British national, it will not be awarded by a member of the royal family.

Ahrendts’ damehood will become official by the end of February.

The title of dame is the female equivalent of knighthood, or being named a “sir,” in the United Kingdom.

Ahrendts is in good company. She’ll be joined on the list by Melinda Gates, an American businesswoman, philanthropist and wife of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, according to “Vogue.”

Another Angela also has been honored as a dame this month, Angela Lansbury.

Ahrendts will become Apple’s senior vice president of retail and online stores this spring. She was hired by the tech company in October.

At the time, she told The Star she would take her Hoosier roots with her to her new job.

“I am hugely proud of my Midwestern roots,” Ahrendts, 53 at the time, said via email. “Growing up in Indiana, I learned that everything truly begins and ends with people, and the compassion, trust and respect for others that define this part of the world have given me a tremendous professional foundation.”

Ahrendts has spent most of her professional career in the fashion industry. In 2006, she was named CEO of Burberry, a luxury British brand established in 1856 that today has 11,000 employees.

She wrote an extensive blog in November on her decision to take the job at Apple.

“Shouldn’t our ambition as leaders be to make a transition something to be celebrated rather than merely managed?” she wrote. “And isn’t the reality that a successful transition could in fact be your greatest legacy?”

Call Star reporter Dana Hunsinger Benbow at (317) 444-6012. Follow her on Twitter: @danabenbow.