Tim Cook Steps Down as Apple CEO, John Ternus Succeeds Him

Tim Cook stepped down as CEO of Apple on 31 August. John Ternus, a longtime company veteran, succeeded him the next day as the company’s new chief executive. Cook has transitioned to the role of executive chairman of Apple’s board of directors.

Ternus, a hardware engineering executive, is a tenured Apple insider, and his ascension indicates the company will stay the course that has led to record profits under Cook’s leadership. Apple’s yearly profit now tops $100bn, the company is worth about $4.5tn, and it has notched record revenue from its iPhones this year, boosted by renewed demand in China.

“I am profoundly grateful for this opportunity to carry Apple’s mission forward,” Ternus said in a company press release when Cook announced his retirement. “Having spent almost my entire career at Apple, I have been lucky to have worked under Steve Jobs and to have had Tim Cook as my mentor. It has been a privilege to help shape the products and experiences that have changed so much of how we interact with the world and with one another.”

Cook praised his successor as having “the mind of an engineer, the soul of an innovator, and the heart to lead with integrity and with honor”.

Ternus started at Apple in 2001 and assumed the role of vice-president of hardware engineering in 2013, then head of the department in 2021, responsible for the physical components that make up Apple products. Among his notable achievements are the development and launch of Apple’s proprietary silicon chips for its Mac line of computers, which saw sales soar after swapping out Intel chips in 2020, according to the Wall Street Journal.

New products that debuted under Ternus’s leadership of the hardware division include the Apple Watch and the AirPods line of headphones, both of which grew into major lines of business for Apple, and the Vision Pro headset, which did not.

The Journal described Ternus as “an affable mechanical engineer” with a management style closer to the calm Cook than to the inspiring but volatile Steve Jobs. The replacement in his role will be Johny Srouji, who previously worked as Apple’s senior vice-president of hardware.

Cook, who joined Apple in 1998 and succeeded Jobs as CEO in 2011, had been engaged in planning his succession for the better part of a year, the New York Times reported in January, after the CEO told the company’s board and senior leaders that he wanted to work less. Ternus had been a favorite for replacing Cook, the newspaper reported.

Ternus, a California native, received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, where he joined the varsity swim team. After graduating in 1997, he briefly worked at Virtual Research Systems, a virtual reality startup.