The end of a great era. In September, Tim Cook will vacate the chair of Apple’s CEO. He is the longest-serving head of one of the most successful companies in history. He has led Apple since 2011, when founder and visionary Steve Jobs resigned due to health reasons.
John Ternus, who serves as vice president of hardware development, will become Apple’s new director. He will become only the third CEO of Apple in the last thirty years.
Tim Cook about him he saidthat he “has the mind of an engineer, the soul of an innovator, and a heart of integrity and honor.” He added that he is “undoubtedly the right person to lead Apple into the future.”
Stock markets reacted to the announcement with a drop of about one percent, but nothing major is happening internally. Tim Cook will have four more months to hand over his responsibilities, and he is not leaving the company completely. He will become the chairman of the board.
After nearly fifteen years under the leadership of Tim Cook, who made a name for himself as an expert in supply chains and operations, Apple is returning to its roots – with a technology engineer and product strategist at the helm.
Who is John Ternus
He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1997. He was an accomplished swimmer and holds the college record for most starts for the swim team.
Before joining Apple, he worked for four years at Virtual Research Systems, where he developed VR headsets, which gave him the foundations for the later Apple Vision Pro project.
He came to Apple in 2001, joining the product design team at a pivotal moment in Apple’s history. Founder Steve Jobs was back in charge and Apple was preparing to launch products that would redefine Apple as a technology leader.
In 2013, Ternus became vice president of hardware engineering, overseeing the development of AirPods, Macs, and iPads. His portfolio expanded in 2020 when he assumed responsibility for smartphone hardware engineering iPhonepreviously overseen by legendary engineer Dan Riccio.
When Riccio stepped down in January 2021 to focus on Apple’s Vision Pro project, Ternus became senior vice president of hardware engineering, putting him in Apple’s inner circle.
He gradually became the face of Apple Keynotes, where he presented key innovations (iMac Pro, revised Mac Pro 2019, iPad Pro). In September 2025, he even opened the flagship Apple Store in London instead of Cook.
Ternus is an engineer who has charisma and knows how to communicate technological innovations in a lively and understandable way, which is a huge advantage. Also under his leadership, Apple replaced Intel processors with Apple’s own Silicon processors based on the ARM architecture.
Historically, Apple has used Intel processors since 2006. The collaboration worked, but Apple ran into limits. Intel couldn’t innovate fast enough, the chips had high consumption, and Apple didn’t have control over development. Moving to the first proprietary M1 processor in 2020 was a logical but risky move. Today, Apple has its own chips in computers and smartphones.
The first M1 chip of 2020 outperformed most MacBooks running on Intel chips at a fraction of their power consumption. The current M5 series chips bring higher performance in the field of artificial intelligence (thanks to the improved Neural Engine in each core). A powerful variant of the M5 Ultra for the Mac Studio desktop is expected to be released in the fall.
Invisible on social networks
By appointing John Ternus, Apple decided not to take risks and did not seek an external manager from another technology company. His selection means that Apple believes in its corporate DNA.
Ternus grew up in the company, knows the internal processes, culture, know-how and especially has natural respect in the company, which guarantees stability. For investors and employees, this is a signal that Apple remains true to its values and is not in danger of a radical or unpredictable reversal.
It is interesting for HR professionals that his profile it is empty on the Linkedin social network and is not active on other social networks either. It is difficult to find out what his real views are. In 2024 at the University of Pennsylvania, he had an intercessionwhich indicated his character.
“Always assume you’re as smart as anyone else, but never assume you know as much as they do,” he said. “With this mindset, you’ll find the confidence you need to move forward, but more importantly, you’ll gain the humility to ask questions.”
Apple already went through a partial management change last year. Several managers and prominent faces from the departments that develop artificial intelligence left the company, and Luca Maestri left the role of financial director after ten years.
