Apple said Monday afternoon that Tim Cook will step down as CEO, a role he has held since 2011 when he succeeded the late Steve Jobs. Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering John Ternus will assume the top executive position on September 1 of this year.
Cook will remain with the company as executive chairman, and Ternus will join Apple’s board of directors. Arthur Levinson, who has served as Apple’s non-executive chairman for the past 15 years, will become lead independent director, also effective Sept. 1.
The transition was made expected for some time and completes one of the biggest and most impactful effects a CEO has had on any company. Cook took the reins at a time of real uncertainty—Jobs died of pancreatic cancer just six weeks after officially handing over the job—and inherited a company that many industry observers and enthusiasts struggled to separate from its famous founder. What he leaves behind is a $4 trillion business with annual revenues that have more than quadrupled on his watch.
“It has been the greatest privilege of my life to be CEO of Apple,” Cook said in a statement on Monday. “I love Apple with all my being and am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with such a smart, innovative, creative and deeply caring group of people who were unwavering in their dedication to enriching the lives of our customers.”
When Cook arrived in Cupertino in 1998, he wasn’t hired to be a visionary. Instead, Jobs, who had recently returned to Apple after years away, needed someone to fix a supply chain that, by most accounts, was a disaster. Cook, a native of Mobile, Alabama, who spent 12 years at IBM before stints at Intelligent Electronics and Compaq, did all that and more. He quickly closed warehouses and consolidated suppliers, and was widely credited with turning Apple’s manufacturing business into a competitive advantage over time instead of a liability.
His promotion to CEO was never a foregone conclusion.
For years, the assumption in and around Silicon Valley was that no one could follow Jobs. It was hard to imagine anyone less like the flashy product visionary than Cook, a methodical expert in supply chain and operations. But when Jobs’ health forced him to step back several times—in 2004, 2009, and again in 2011—Cook ran the company smoothly enough that when Jobs officially handed him the title, he was the obvious candidate.
Techcrunch event
San Francisco, California
|
13-15 October 2026
As is well known, stumbles followed. Among the highest profile was the Apple Vision Pro, the mixed-reality headset that Cook touted as the company’s next great platform and that was largely ignored by consumers who didn’t want to pay several thousand dollars to put a computer weighing more than a pound on their face.
However, his tenure was highly successful by other measures. As the company noted in its own announcement Monday about the executive shakeup, Cook has turned Apple Services into a business that’s worth more than $100 billion a year. Apple also credits him with creating the booming wearable category at Apple. (Last year, the Apple Watch accounted for approx 25% of global smartwatch sales.)
Levinson, in a statement on behalf of the board, called Cook’s leadership “unprecedented and outstanding,” saying Cook’s “integrity and values infuse everything Apple does.” Levinson added that the board is “thrilled” that Cook will continue as executive chairman.
Ternus, who at 51 is about the same age Cook was when he became CEO, has spent almost his entire career at Apple. A California kid, he studied mechanical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, competed on the varsity swim team, and graduated in 1997. After a brief stint designing virtual reality headsets at a small company called Virtual Research Systems, he joined Apple’s product design team in 2001. By 20, he was president of hardware engineering. In 2021, when his predecessor Dan Riccio stepped down to oversee what would become the (ill-fated) Vision Pro, Ternus was promoted to senior vice president, making him the youngest member of Apple’s executive team.
It’s no surprise that Ternus has been involved in much of what Apple has shipped over the past decade. According to Apple, he was a key contributor to the introduction of the iPad and AirPods and has overseen multiple generations of iPhones, Macs and the Apple Watch. His team’s work was done well more visible last fall, with the introduction of a new iPhone lineup that included the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max, the iPhone Air, and the iPhone 17 itself.
On the Mac side, Ternus has helped strengthen the category, including through the recent introduction of the more affordable MacBook Neo. His team is also credited (by Apple) with pushing AirPods to the point where they now function not just as headphones but as an over-the-counter hearing health system.
Beyond the products themselves, Ternus has made durability and repair a major focus. Apple credits him with introducing new materials and manufacturing techniques that have reduced the carbon footprint of Apple products, including a new recycled aluminum compound used in many product lines, while also extending the life of many Apple devices through advances in their stability.
In his own statement on Monday, Ternus said: “Having spent almost my entire career at Apple, I was fortunate to work under Steve Jobs and to have Tim Cook as my mentor,” he said. “I am humbled to step into this role and promise to lead with the values and vision that have come to define this special place for half a century.”
Ternus Cook said in turn, “John Ternus has the mind of an engineer, the soul of an innovator, and the heart to lead with integrity and honor,” he said. “He is without a doubt the right person to lead Apple into the future.”
