Joe Gebbia: From Airbnb to US 'chief design officer'

The United States has found its first chief design officer in Joe Gebbia, a billionaire co-founder of Airbnb who said on Saturday that he had ambitious plans to beautify the government's online presence.

- CALLIE HOLTERMANN

Do those plans include any of the heavy gold flourishes that seem to dazzle President Trump? Mr Gebbia is imagining something a little sleeker.

"My directive is to update today's government services to be as satisfying to use as the Apple Store," he wrote in a post on X.

Mr Gebbia's appointment came after Trump signed an executive order last month to create a new federal design initiative that aims to improve experiences like renewing a passport or applying for a small business loan. The order called for a National Design Studio that would work to "update the Government's design language to be both usable and beautiful."

Beyond the executive order, Trump has not addressed Mr Gebbia's appointment.

Mr Gebbia has charted an unusual path from art school to a post in a Republican administration. He was a graphic and industrial design student at the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where he met Brian Chesky, another Airbnb founder.

Over the years, Mr Gebbia also founded a modular home startup, designed a line of office furniture, attended the Met Gala with a North Korean refugee and joined the board of Tesla. He now lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife, the Brazilian model and nuclear power influencer Isabelle Boemeke.

A donor to the presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, Mr Gebbia made waves in the design profession when he announced in January that he had voted for Trump, declaring that the Democrats he previously supported had "lost their way." Soon after, he joined the Department of Government Efficiency run by his close friend Elon Musk, with a goal of modernising the bureaucracy's retirement system.

Representatives for Mr Gebbia declined to comment on his new role.