Who Is John Ternus, The Incoming Apple Ceo?

After 15 years, Tim Cook will hand disconnected nan Apple CEO role to John Ternus, nan company’s elder vice president of hardware engineering. Starting connected September 1, Ternus will lead 1 of nan world’s astir valuable companies, but if you’re not a dedicated Apple enthusiast, you’ve astir apt ne'er heard of this man, who has mostly remained retired of nan spotlight until now.

How agelong has John Ternus worked astatine Apple?

Ternus has worked astatine Apple for astir half of his life — now 51 years old, he has been pinch nan institution for 25 years.

He joined Apple’s merchandise creation squad successful 2001 arsenic only his 2nd occupation retired of assemblage (his first was astatine a mini shaper of virtual reality devices called Virtual Research Systems). By 2013, Ternus was a VP of hardware engineering, and was promoted to nan SVP domiciled successful 2021. Ternus — who is 15 years younger than Cook — was among nan youngest of apical Apple executives who had been rumored arsenic a imaginable successor, implying that Apple could beryllium looking for personification to lead nan institution for a agelong time. After all, Apple has only had 2 CEOs successful this millennium, truthful it seems that activity continuity is important to nan company.

Ternus reports to Cook, whom he considers a mentor, and leads each of hardware engineering astatine Apple. That’s a beautiful large woody for a institution that’s known for ubiquitous hardware for illustration nan iPhone and nan MacBook.

In his 2024 commencement reside astatine his alma mater, nan University of Pennsylvania’s engineering school, Ternus reflected connected nan lessons he learned astatine Apple, which possibly tin show america a spot astir his characteristic — aliases astatine slightest a sanitized type of it.

“Always presume you’re arsenic smart arsenic anyone other successful nan room, but ne'er presume that you cognize arsenic overmuch arsenic they do,” Ternus said successful nan speech. “With this mindset, you’ll find nan assurance you request to push forward, but much importantly, nan humility to inquire questions.”

In a tech ecosystem populated pinch abrasive egos, it’s refreshing to perceive Ternus utter nan connection “humility.” Better yet, he doesn’t look to person an X account.

Image Credits:Apple

What projects did John Ternus lead astatine Apple?

Ternus’s earliest task astatine Apple progressive scrutinizing parts for nan Apple Cinema Display, an early desktop monitor.

“At immoderate constituent successful my first year, I recovered myself astatine a supplier facility. I was acold distant from home. Well past midnight, I was utilizing a magnifying solid to count nan number of grooves connected nan caput of a screw […] and I was arguing pinch nan supplier because these parts had 35 grooves. They were expected to person 25,” Ternus recalled successful his commencement speech. “I distinctly retrieve stepping backmost for a infinitesimal and thinking, ‘What nan hellhole americium I doing? Is this normal?’”

As Ternus climbed nan firm ladder, his responsibilities grew. He whitethorn nary longer walk arsenic overmuch clip analyzing screws, but he still seems to return pridefulness successful getting nan small specifications right. In a caller interview, erstwhile Ternus was asked astir his favourite representation of Steve Jobs, he mentioned nan erstwhile Apple co-founder’s attraction to craftsmanship.

“[Jobs] was moving a portion of furniture, a thorax of drawers, and pulled it distant from nan wall and looked astatine nan backmost and was conscionable reflecting on, you know, that nan carpenter who made it had made it beautiful,” Ternus said. “It vanished nan backmost arsenic beautifully arsenic nan remainder of it, moreover though cipher was going to spot it, right? And I deliberation astir that each nan clip because I deliberation that perfectly exemplifies what we do here.”

From there, he went connected to lead nan hardware improvement down products crossed nan Apple ecosystem, overseeing launches for illustration AirPods, Apple Watch, and nan Vision Pro. He besides had a manus successful awesome method upgrades astatine Apple, for illustration Apple’s modulation from Intel chips to its ain proprietary Apple silicon.

Most recently, Ternus was progressive successful nan accumulation of nan MacBook Neo, Apple’s new, much affordable laptop exemplary that lowers costs done immoderate clever tradeoffs successful hardware design, for illustration utilizing an iPhone spot to powerfulness nan device.

“We ne'er want to vessel junk. We want to vessel awesome products that person that Apple experience, that Apple quality. To do that pinch nan Neo required building thing wholly caller from nan crushed up […] leveraging some nan technologies we’d been processing for illustration Apple silicon, but besides nan benignant of expertise that we’ve developed complete many, galore years of building Macs, and building phones, and building iPads, and each of these things,” Ternus told Tom’s Guide.

As CEO, Ternus will person to steer Apple done its situation to drawback up successful nan AI title and fig retired what to do pinch nan underlying tech down nan Vision Pro.

What other do we cognize astir John Ternus?

Ternus was connected nan swimming squad astatine Penn. For his elder project, he built a feeding limb that group pinch quadriplegia could power pinch caput movements.

According to public records of governmental donations, Ternus donated $2,900 to Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) successful 2021.

Otherwise, Ternus has maintained a comparatively debased profile.