Who is John Ternus? The new head of Apple has been associated with the company for 25 years
John Ternus, born in 1975, is associated with Apple almost from the very beginning of his professional career. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, he joined the now-defunct Virtual Research, where he worked as an engineer for about four years.
Currently, he holds the position of senior vice president for hardware engineering, an area in which he has worked at Apple from the very beginning – he received a job offer there in 2001, during the times of Steve Jobs. He has been associated with the Cupertino giant for a quarter of a century, which, considering his current age – 50 – means that when he becomes CEO, he will devote more than half of his life to Apple. Along the way, he had a hand in designing most of the key devices, from MacBooks to Apple Watches, although his most significant contributions concerned the iPad and AirPods headphones.
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As Ternus systematically expanded its influence, it began to shape other product categories more and more boldly. One of his newest and most impressive achievements is the iPhone Air, an ultra-thin version of the smartphone. This project proves that extreme miniaturization has once again become a priority in Cupertino, and itself Ternus personally led the presentation of this device during the September Apple Event in 2025. There is a high probability that iPhone Air will become the technological foundation on which iPhone Fold will be created – the long-awaited foldable device that is a bridge between a phone and a tablet.
Role in the Apple Silicon revolution
An extremely important aspect of John Ternus's career is his huge participation in the process of Apple's transition to its own chips. Resigning from Intel processors in favor of proprietary Apple Silicon M series chips has pushed the entire product portfolio forward, offering an unprecedented leap in performance. Ternus undoubtedly feels and understands the DNA of modern Apple, because he has been building the brand's identity for decades. Interestingly, he is currently in exactly the same age as Tim Cook was when he took over as CEO.
He has the image of a man looking for innovative solutions while maintaining a calm and analytical approach, which is what makes him so almost a mirror image of the current CEO. This is probably why he appeared on stage so often during the presentation of the most important products. For a long time, Tim Cook had been gradually and quietly handing over subsequent areas of the company's operations to his successor, who was still unofficial at that time.
Preparations for succession
At the end of 2025, Apple quietly put John Ternus in charge of its hardware and software design teams.. This was the first concrete evidence that he was being prepared to become the company's CEO in the future.
This change took place without unnecessary fanfare, which is typical of Apple's organizational culture. Although formally the mentioned teams still report directly to Tim Cook, the actual decision-making and supervisory role over them is exercised by Ternus. The formal change and full assumption of CEO duties will be completed on September 1, 2026.
