CUPERTINO: Apple said Monday that John Ternus, its senior vice president of hardware engineering, will succeed Tim Cook as CEO on Sept. 1, with Cook becoming executive chairman.
Ternus, 50, will join Apple’s board of directors upon taking the top job. Apple’s nonexecutive chairman, Arthur Levinson, will become lead independent director at that time. Cook, 65, will remain CEO through the summer to ensure a smooth transition, the company said in a press release.
The board approved the move Friday, according to a company filing. It marks Apple’s first CEO change since Cook replaced Steve Jobs in 2011, shortly before Jobs’ death. Ternus will be the company’s eighth CEO.
“It has been the greatest privilege of my life to be the CEO of Apple,” Cook said in a statement. He praised the team’s “ingenuity, innovation, creativity and deep care” in serving customers.
Apple also named Johny Srouji, previously senior vice president of hardware technologies, as chief hardware officer in an expanded role overseeing hardware engineering.
Cook’s nearly 15-year tenure saw Apple’s revenue nearly quadruple to over $400 billion in its latest fiscal year and its market cap soar more than 20-fold to $4 trillion as of Monday’s close. He earned $74.6 million in total compensation last year, including a $3 million base salary and stock awards, per regulatory filings. Forbes estimates his net worth near $3 billion.
A supply chain expert who joined Apple in 1998 when it teetered near bankruptcy, Cook transformed operations and launched hits like the Apple Watch, AirPods and Vision Pro headset. He graduated from Auburn University in 1982 and earned an MBA from Duke in 1988, with prior stints at IBM and Compaq.
Ternus, a University of Pennsylvania mechanical engineering graduate, joined Apple in 2001 after working at Virtual Research Systems. He has overseen hardware for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, AirPods and Vision Pro, earning profiles in The New York Times and Bloomberg as Cook’s likely successor.
Apple faces headwinds as Ternus takes over, including supply chain complexities, geopolitical tensions, Trump administration tariffs and a memory chip shortage driven by AI demand. Critics have faulted the company for lagging in AI; it delayed a Siri upgrade last year, plans a Google Gemini-based version this year and recently hired a Google veteran to lead AI efforts.
Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives called the timing surprising, noting Cook had signaled he might stay longer. In a “Good Morning America” appearance last month, Cook dismissed retirement rumors, saying, “I love what I do deeply” after 28 years at Apple.