Who is John Ternus, the man who becomes the new chief executive of Apple?

A veteran with 25 years of experience in the company

Ternus has spent almost half of his ž life at Apple – he is now 51 years old, and has been with the company longer. 25 years. He joined Apple’s product design team in 2001, only his second job out of college. By 2013, he became vice president of hardware engineering, and was promoted to the position of senior vice president in 2021.

Ternus, who is 15 years younger than Cook, was among the youngest senior Apple executives rumored as possible successors. This suggests that the company is looking for someone who can lead it for a long time. After all, Apple has only had two CEOs since 2000, so leadership continuity seems extremely important. The appointment decision was unanimously approved by the board of directors, and Cook will assume the role of executive chairman.

A humble leader in a world of big egos

In his speech to the graduates of his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania College of Technology in 2024, Ternus reflected on the lessons he learned at Apple, which may reveal something about his character.

​- Always assume you’re as smart as everyone else in the room, but never assume you know as much as they do. With this way of thinking, you will find the confidence you need to move forward, but more importantly, the humility to ask questions.

In a technological ecosystem full of abrasive egos, it is refreshing to see Ternus utter the words; “humility”. Even better, he doesn’t appear to have an account on social network X.

Obsession with details like Jobs

Ternus’ earliest project at Apple involved checking parts for the Apple Cinema Display, an early desktop monitor.

​- At one point during my first year, I found myself at a supplier’s facility. I was far from home. Well after midnight, I was counting the number of slots on the bolt head with a magnifying glass and arguing with the supplier because these parts had 35 slots when they should have had 25. I distinctly remember stopping for a minute and thinking, “What the hell am I doing? Is this normal?” Ternus recalled.

As he climbed the corporate ladder, his responsibilities grew. He may not spend as much time analyzing bolts anymore, but he still seems to pride himself on taking care of the small details. In a recent interview, when he was asked about his fondest memory of Steve Jobs, he mentioned the care that the former co-founder had. Apple was devoted to making.

​- [Jobs] was moving a piece of furniture, a chest of drawers, moved it away from the wall, looked at the back and just thought about how the carpenter who made it made it beautiful. He finished the back side as nicely as the rest, although no one will see it, will they? And I think about it all the time because I think it perfectly describes what we do here.

Key role in hardware development

After his initial assignments, he went on to lead hardware development for products across the Apple ecosystem, overseeing launches such as AirPods, Apple Watch and Vision Pro. He also played a key role in major technical upgrades, such as Apple’s transition from Intel chips to Apple’s own silicon.

Most recently, he was involved in the production of the MacBook Neo, Apple’s new, more affordable laptop model that cuts costs with some smart compromises in hardware design, such as using iPhone chips to power the device.

​- We never want to deliver garbage. We want to deliver great products that have that Apple experience, that Apple quality. To achieve this with Neo, we had to build something completely new from the ground up, using technologies we’ve been developing, like Apple’s silicon, but also the expertise we’ve gained over many, many years building Macs, phones and iPads – Ternus told Tom’s Guide.

Izaz’s future

As CEO, Ternus will have to guide Apple through the challenge of catching up to the competition in the artificial intelligence race and deciding what to do with the underlying technology behind Vision Pro. Analysts agree that progress in the field of artificial intelligence will be his biggest task, given that the company is considered to be lagging behind its competitors in that area.

Ternus was on the swimming team at university. For his thesis, he created a feeding arm that quadriplegics could control with head movements. According to public data on political donations, in 2021 he donated $2,900 to Senator Chuck Schumer. Otherwise, Ternus kept a relatively low profile in the public eye.