Tim Cook spent 15 years turning Apple into one of the world’s most valuable companies. Now he is handing it to the man who, more than anyone else, contributed to the hardware you could be holding in your hand.
John Ternus will succeed Cook as CEO on September 1. At the same time, Cook, 65, who took over his current role from founder Steve Jobs in 2011, will become chairman of Apple’s board of directors. It marks a shift towards a hardware-focused future.
“We always view ourselves as a toolmaker. We make tools for people to be able to express themselves creatively,” Cook told The Telegraph in April 2023, shortly after the opening of the company’s first store — Apple BKC — in India.
The company now touts an active installed base of more than 2.5 billion devices globally.
Cook’s departure from the top job makes Ternus only the third Apple CEO since September 1997. It also marks a shift in the company’s strategy, as Ternus has deep technical expertise and institutional knowledge, having worked at the company during both the Jobs and Cook eras.
The mechanical engineer, who holds a degree from the University of Pennsylvania, joined Apple in 2001 and assumed the role of vice-president of hardware engineering in 2013, before becoming head of the department in 2021, responsible for the physical components that make up Apple products.
His most notable achievement, which sets the company apart from its competition, is helping develop and transition the Mac lineup from Intel chips to Apple silicon.
Although Cook has been the face of the company for 15 years, Ternus was instrumental in introducing multiple new product lines, including iPad and AirPods, as well as many generations of products across iPhone, Mac and Apple Watch. His management style is closer to that of the measured Cook.
Succeeding Ternus as chief hardware officer will be Johny Srouji, “effective immediately”, according to an announcement from Apple.
Srouji joined Apple in 2008 and has served as senior vice-president of hardware technologies. He oversaw the launch of Apple’s in-house chips, starting with the A4, and helped develop a range of other technologies used in Apple products, including batteries, cameras, storage controllers, sensors, displays and cellular modems.
The inbox waiting for Ternus on September 1 is formidable — a Siri that trails rivals and an AI strategy yet to prove itself.
To understand where Apple is going under Ternus, it helps to consider how much ground Cook covered to get it here.
Cook, who was a close confidant of Jobs, initially took over as interim CEO whilst Jobs was undergoing cancer treatment in 2009, and assumed permanent responsibilities shortly before Jobs passed away in 2011.
During his tenure at the top, the company grew around tenfold, made the iPhone the heart of Apple’s product line, and transformed into a services behemoth that generates more than $100 billion a year from businesses such as the App Store, Apple Pay and iCloud.
He is widely held in high regard for his operational expertise; he built out the company’s vast manufacturing network in China and Southeast Asia, turning it into a $4 trillion business.
He led the company through the Covid-19 pandemic and legal and tax scrutiny from antitrust regulators and politicians.
Trump factor
Cook also managed to appease US President Donald Trump for favourable regulatory decisions, without alienating too many Apple employees and customers in the process.
The task has placed Cook in embarrassing situations. In 2019, when he showed the President around a factory in Texas, Trump wrongly boasted that, because of his policies, Apple was building a new manufacturing plant in the US.
In 2025, he presented Trump with a symbolic gift of “Made in the USA” glass from Apple supplier Corning, set in 24-carat gold.
Cook’s diplomatic approach reportedly helped Apple secure an exclusion from Trump’s tariffs on the iPhone during the President’s first term, and smartphones dodged some new tariffs in his second term, too.
As US-China relations soured in recent years, he led Apple to look to India as an alternative manufacturing base. His continued presence on Apple’s board is likely to calm some investor concerns, particularly with Trump still in the White House.
Arthur Levinson, who has been Apple’s non-executive chairman for the past 15 years, will become its lead independent director on September 1. Ternus will join the board of directors on the same date.