Imran Chaudhri

Imran Chaudhri is a designer, inventor, innovator, and cofounder, chairman, and president of Humane. Before founding Humane, he spent over twenty years with Apple. He was one of the designers of the original iPhone, known for his groundbreaking buttonless, touchscreen-only home screen work. He is also named as an inventor on thousands of patents.

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Imran Chaudhri cofounded Humane with his wife, Bethany Bongiorno, in January 2019 in the San Francisco Bay area. Humane is a start-up with the mission to build innovative technology that feels familiar, natural, and human. The company has raised over $130 million and has kept its development secret. At the Business of Fashion Voices 2022 conference in November 2022, Chaudhri presented the company’s vision for the future and announced that its first product would be revealed in Spring 2023.

Apple iPhone, first-generation model, image courtesy of Apple Inc.

Imran Chaurhri spent twenty-one years with Apple, ending his career there as the director of design in December 2016. He was one of six designers who created the groundbreaking touchscreen-only home screen of the first iPhone and is named as an inventor on thousands of patents, including the "slide to unlock" patent. Before joining the original iPhone team, he led the design for the macOS Dashboard, which was full of widgets, including those for weather, stocks, calculator, notes, and calendar, and these became the basis for the iPhone icons. Chaurhri also worked on other Apple products, including the Macintosh computer, iPod, iPad, and Apple Watch.