Who Is John Ternus? Meet Apple’s New CEO Taking Over From Tim Cook

[John Ternus](./images/John Ternus.jpg)

Apple has a new CEO. Here’s everything you need to know about John Ternus — his 25-year journey at Apple, the products he built, and what comes next..

Apple Just Got a New Boss — And You’ve Probably Never Heard of Him

So here’s some big tech news: for the first time in 15 years, Apple is getting a new CEO. Tim Cook is stepping back, and starting September 1, the company will be led by John Ternus, who most recently ran Apple’s hardware engineering division.

If you’re sitting there thinking “wait, who?” — don’t worry, you’re not out of the loop. Ternus isn’t someone who’s been front and center at Apple events the way Cook is, or the way software chief Craig Federighi is. He’s spent most of his career quietly building things behind the scenes instead of chasing the spotlight. That’s about to change, so let me walk you through who this guy actually is, how he climbed to the top, and what it might mean for Apple going forward.

He’s Been at Apple for 25 Years — And It Started With Him Literally Counting Screws

Let’s start with the basics. Ternus is 51, and he’s spent roughly half his life at Apple. He joined the company’s product design team all the way back in 2001, right out of the University of Pennsylvania’s engineering school. Before joining Apple, Ternus began his career as a mechanical engineer at the small VR hardware startup Virtual Research Systems, where he designed virtual reality headsets.

And honestly, his first real Apple story is a great one. In his very first year on the job, he ended up at a supplier’s factory late at night, using a magnifying glass to count the grooves on tiny screws meant for the Apple Cinema Display, one of Apple’s early monitors. He actually got into an argument with the supplier because the screws had 35 grooves instead of the required 25. It sounds almost silly out of context, but it tells you a lot about how Apple works — even a screw nobody will ever look closely at has to be exactly right.

That obsession with invisible details seems to have shaped how he thinks. He’s talked before about a memory of Steve Jobs admiring a piece of furniture — not the front, which everyone sees, but the back, which had been finished just as beautifully even though no one would ever look at it. Ternus has said that memory sums up exactly what Apple tries to do with everything it makes.

From there, his career moved upward steadily rather than in some flashy, overnight way. He became a VP of hardware engineering in 2013, then senior VP in 2021 — the job he held right up until this promotion. One thing worth noting: he’s about 15 years younger than Cook, which hints that Apple might be planning for a long run of stable leadership. This company has only had two CEOs since the year 2000, so keeping that streak going seems to matter to them.

What Has He Actually Built? More Than You’d Think

As head of hardware engineering, Ternus wasn’t just sitting in meetings — he had real hands-on influence over products you’ve probably used yourself. Here’s a taste of what fell under his watch:

AirPods — one of Apple’s biggest hit product categories in years
Apple Watch — through multiple generations and redesigns
Vision Pro — Apple’s big bet on spatial computing
The Apple Silicon transition — moving the entire Mac lineup off Intel chips and onto Apple’s own custom processors
The MacBook Neo — Apple’s newer, cheaper laptop, which reportedly uses an iPhone chip to help hit a lower price point without feeling cheap

That last one is actually pretty interesting if you think about it. Building a genuinely more affordable Mac without it feeling like a downgrade isn’t easy, and Ternus has talked about how the team leaned on years of accumulated know-how from building iPhones, iPads, and Macs to pull it off — basically reusing Apple’s hard-earned engineering playbook instead of starting from scratch.

He’s Not Your Typical Loud Tech CEO

Here’s something I find kind of refreshing about him: he barely has a public persona. A lot of tech executives treat social media like part of the job — Ternus doesn’t even seem to have an X (Twitter) account. In a 2024 commencement speech at Penn, he told graduates to always assume they’re as smart as anyone else in the room, but never assume they know as much — basically, stay confident, but stay humble too. That’s a pretty low-ego message for an industry that usually rewards the opposite.

Outside of work, he’s apparently a serious amateur Porsche racer these days, and reportedly a competitive swimmer back in his college years — so clearly a guy who likes precision, whether it’s on a racetrack or a factory floor.

So What’s Next for Apple Under Him?

Now that he’s CEO, Ternus has two major challenges sitting on his desk right away:

Catching up on AI. Apple’s been seen as playing catch-up compared to companies like Google and OpenAI on generative AI, and closing that gap is probably going to define a lot of his early tenure.
Figuring out what Vision Pro actually becomes. It’s a genuinely new product category for Apple, backed by years of R&D, but whether it turns into a mainstream hit is still very much up in the air.

After being named CEO, Ternus said he felt humbled by the opportunity, and pointed back to having worked under Steve Jobs early on and having Cook as a mentor ever since. His stated goal is to keep leading with the same values that have shaped Apple for decades — while still pushing the company toward whatever comes next.

Quick Facts About John Ternus


Age	51
Years at Apple	25 (joined in 2001)
Previous role	SVP of Hardware Engineering
New role	CEO of Apple (effective September 1)
Education	University of Pennsylvania, School of Engineering
Key products	AirPods, Apple Watch, Vision Pro, Apple Silicon transition, MacBook Neo

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is John Ternus? He’s Apple’s new CEO, taking over from Tim Cook on September 1. Before this, he was senior vice president of hardware engineering, a role he’d held since 2021.

How long has John Ternus worked at Apple? 25 years — he joined Apple’s product design team back in 2001.

What did John Ternus do before becoming CEO? He ran all of Apple’s hardware engineering, overseeing the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, AirPods, and Vision Pro. He also played a big role in moving Apple off Intel chips and onto its own Apple Silicon.

Why did Apple pick John Ternus as CEO? He was one of the youngest top executives in the running, and choosing him suggests Apple wants long-term leadership stability — something the company has clearly valued, having had only two CEOs since 2000.

What challenges is John Ternus facing as CEO? Mainly two things: catching Apple up in the AI race, and figuring out the long-term direction for Vision Pro.

What do you think of Apple’s new CEO? Let me know by email.