Tim Cook to Step Down at Apple
- Apple CEO Tim Cook announced he will step down, handing CEO duties to the company's hardware leader. - John Ternus, Apple's head of hardware engineering, is named Cook's successor effective immediately. - The leadership change could reshape product priorities and regional strategy (patch.com).
Apple said on April 20 that Tim Cook will leave the chief executive job on September 1, and hardware chief John Ternus will take over. (apple.com) Cook will become executive chairman of Apple’s board after the handoff, and Apple said its directors approved the change unanimously after what it called a long-term succession process. (apple.com) Ternus is Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, the executive who runs engineering for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, AirPods, and Apple Vision Pro. He joined Apple’s product design team in 2001 and became a vice president of hardware engineering in 2013. (apple.com) Apple paired the succession move with another hardware change: Johny Srouji, the executive behind Apple’s chip strategy, was named chief hardware officer effective immediately and will absorb the hardware engineering group Ternus had led. (apple.com) The reshuffle lands at a company where hardware still sets the pace. Apple’s 2025 annual report says the iPhone remained its biggest business, and the company also reported record Services revenue for the year ended September 27, 2025. (sec.gov) Cook has run Apple since August 2011, when he succeeded Steve Jobs after serving as chief operating officer. Apple’s leadership page says his earlier job covered the company’s global supply chain, sales, service, and support operations. (apple.com) That operating background shaped Apple’s expansion over the past 15 years, including a bigger manufacturing network, a larger services business, and a deeper presence in markets outside the United States. Apple’s leadership and governance page lists Isabel Ge Mahe as vice president and managing director of Greater China, underscoring how much regional management matters inside the company. (apple.com) Cook said he will stay in the chief executive role through the summer to work closely with Ternus on the transition. By September, Apple will be run by an engineer who has spent the past decade overseeing nearly every major device in its lineup. (apple.com)
