Everything there is to know about Apple's new CEO John Ternus has worked at the company for over twenty years and has been a close collaborator of Tim Cook
Yesterday Apple announced that CEO Tim Cook will step down from his role starting September 1, becoming executive chairman of the multinational. The company’s new chief executive officer will instead be John Ternus, who currently serves as vice president of Apple’s hardware engineering division. It is a very significant change for the company, which has not replaced its CEO since 2011, when Cook succeeded founder Steve Jobs.
Ternus – who is 51 years old, 14 years younger than Cook – has been working at the Cupertino-based company for more than two decades: among other things, he oversaw the development and launch of the iPad and AirPods, as well as the iPhone and iPod. Ternus is described as a low-profile executive with a very understated communication style, unlike many other Silicon Valley CEOs.
Who is John Ternus
Ternus graduated in mechanical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997, with a thesis on a robotic arm controlled by head movements designed for people with quadriplegia. Immediately after his studies, he began working at one of the first companies focused on virtual reality. When he joined Apple in 2001, the company was struggling against competition from Microsoft, which between the late 1990s and early 2000s was the undisputed leader in the tech sector.
Ternus’s influence within Apple has grown especially since 2021, when he became executive vice president and began working closely with Tim Cook. In recent times, Ternus has played a key role in the development of the MacBook Neo, a more affordable version of the well-known laptop, and the iPhone Air, among other projects.
What can we expect from Apple’s new CEO?
During Tim Cook’s leadership, Apple’s profits have quadrupled, reaching around $110 billion per year. Today, the Cupertino-based company exceeds $4 trillion in total value. However, in recent months Apple has had to deal with several resignations of high-level executives due to the company’s difficulty in adapting to the AI market compared to other Big Tech firms. This has been a rather unusual situation for the multinational, which has long been considered one of the most stable companies in Silicon Valley, capable of attracting and retaining top industry talent.
Among Ternus’s first responsibilities will be several delicate issues: first of all, the company will need to catch up in the field of artificial intelligence, preventing its most skilled employees from being recruited by competitors; secondly, Ternus will need to definitively clarify what to do with the Apple Vision Pro, the mixed reality headset launched in 2024, which so far does not seem to have convinced consumers – despite significant investments.