This may well be the most pivotal leadership transition of this generation. Tim Cook will hand over the reigns Apple Inc. to John Ternus, who will become Apple’s next chief executive officer effective on September 1. Apple’s expected leadership transition has been formalised soon after the 50 year milestone. Cook will continue in his role as CEO through the next few months, to help Ternus will a smooth transition, with Ternus’ tenure as CEO commencing just before the expected annual iPhone keynote in the same month. Tim Cook will become executive chairman of Apple’s board of directors. Ternus is presently senior vice president of Hardware Engineering.
Cook, 65, calls his time as CEO of Apple as the “greatest privilege of my life”. He added, “I love Apple with all of my being, and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with a team of such ingenious, innovative, creative, and deeply caring people who have been unwavering in their dedication to enriching the lives of our customers and creating the best products and services in the world.”
Ternus, 50, says he is “profoundly grateful for this opportunity to carry Apple’s mission forward”, and adds, “ 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. I am filled with optimism about what we can achieve in the years to come, and I am so happy to know that the most talented people on earth are here at Apple, determined to be part of something bigger than any one of us.”
“I am humbled to step into this role, and I promise to lead with the values and vision that have come to define this special place for half a century,” this statement from Ternus hints at a path of consistency and continuity. Ternus will join the board of directors, on September 1.
Timothy Donald Cook had joined Apple in 1998, and became CEO in 2011. Coincidentally, Cook also took over the role of CEO shortly before a pivotal keynote in October of that year—the iPhone 4s was announced that year. In the 14 years and counting as the CEO, and 28 years at Apple, he had more than spearheaded Apple to the peak market capitalisation of $4 trillion in October 2025. That number represents a much greater than 35x approximate growth in Apple’s stock price from when Cook took over in 2011, with now more than 2.5 billion active Apple devices (iPhones, Macs, iPads, Watches, etc.) worldwide. This is a measure of how deeply Apple’s ecosystem has embedded itself into daily life globally.
To put Cook’s tenure in broader context — only 8% of S&P 500 CEOs have tenures exceeding 20 years, and the median CEO tenure has dropped from 6 years in 2013 to just 4.8 years in 2022. By modern standards, this is rare. Nvidia’s Jensen Huang (1993–present, 30+ years) and Marc Benioff of Salesforce (1999–present, 25+ years), two equally rare illustrations of human establishments.
“John Ternus has the mind of an engineer, the soul of an innovator, and the heart to lead with integrity and with honour. He is a visionary whose contributions to Apple over 25 years are already too numerous to count, and he is without question the right person to lead Apple into the future. I could not be more confident in his abilities and his character, and I look forward to working closely with him on this transition and in my new role as executive chairman,” Tim Cook has words of praise for Ternus.
Ternus has translated Cook and Apple’s product vision into reality over the past few years, with absolute precision. The most recent and already very popular Apple MacBook Neo may spring to mind first, but the MacBook range, the iPad portfolio, the iPhone Air and the iPhone 17 Pro phones, as well as the Mac Studio which took the mantle of the most powerful Mac ever last year, some unmissable chapters in the book of Ternus.
When Cook took over as CEO, he was the Chief Operating Officer (COO). Leander Kahney, veteran tech journalist and author of the biography Tim Cook: The Genius Who Took Apple to the Next Level, called Cook “ the man who ran the supply chain”. Ternus, transitioning from senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, brings that necessary mix of product and engineering focus—one who knows the balance of achieving the glitter the world sees when a new product is launched as well as the work that goes deep inside research and engineering labs, to get there. This is perhaps the need of the hour.
For Ternus, who has already underlined a need to remain consistent with the vision set for Apple by Tim Cook over the years, will have the broad challenge of not only ensuring key product lines remain exciting and successful, but also continued revenue stream that is the Services business (this itself is now more than a $100 billion business, according to official numbers), also build new product lines. It was Cook who oversaw the birth of various products and services, including new categories such as Apple Watch, AirPods, and Apple Vision Pro, and services ranging from iCloud and Apple Pay to Apple TV and Apple Music.
Apple reported a market capitalisation of $4 trillion in 2025, as well as yearly revenue of $416 billion in the same fiscal year. One of the big things for Ternus to tackle would be the company’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) efforts, with Apple Intelligence competing in the same space as many AI rivals who often have a lot to say.
