Apple has announced that John Ternus will become its new Chief Executive Officer, succeeding Tim Cook, who will assume the executive chairman position effective September 1. Ternus, currently the senior vice president of hardware engineering, is also set to join Apple’s board of directors upon stepping into the new role.
With this leadership transition, current nonexecutive chairman Arthur Levinson will move into the role of lead independent director.
Ternus, who has worked at Apple for 25 years, began his career with the company’s product design team in 2001 and was promoted to vice president of hardware engineering in 2013. He joined the executive team in 2021, playing a central part in the development of several key products, such as various models of the iPad, AirPods, iPhone, Air series, Mac, Apple Watch, and MacBook Neo.
This marks Apple’s first CEO change since Cook replaced Steve Jobs in 2011.
During Cook’s time as CEO, Apple’s market capitalization increased from roughly $350 billion to $4 trillion, representing growth of over 1,000%. Cook, who joined Apple in 1998, oversaw numerous major product launches—such as Apple Watch, AirPods, Apple Vision Pro—as well as the expansion into new services like iCloud, Apple Pay, Apple TV, and Apple Music.
