Who is John Ternus, the next CEO of Apple?

After 15 years, Tim Cook will give the role of Apple CEO to John Ternus, senior vice president of hardware technology. From September 1, Ternus will lead one of the most important companies in the world, but if you are not a devoted Apple fan, you may not have heard of this person, who has not been seen until now.

How long has John Ternus worked for Apple?

Ternus has worked at Apple for almost half of his life – now 51 years old, he has been with the company for 25 years.

He joined Apple’s manufacturing team in 2001 as his second job out of college (his first was making small hardware called Virtual Research Systems). By 2013, Ternus was the VP of hardware engineering, and was promoted to the position of SVP in 2021. Ternus – who is 15 years younger than Cook – was one of the youngest Apple executives ever. rumours as a successor, meaning that Apple may be looking for someone to lead the company for the long term. After all, Apple has only had two CEOs in this millennium, so it seems that continuity of leadership is important for the company.

Ternus tells Cook, who he considers a mentor, and leads Apple’s hardware engineering. That’s a big deal for a company known for ubiquitous devices like the iPhone and MacBook.

In his commencement address in 2024 at his alma mater, the engineering school of the University of Pennsylvania, Ternus highlighted the lessons he learned at Apple, which may tell us a little about its form – or its refined form.

“Always think you’re as smart as everyone else in the room, but don’t think you know what they know,” Ternus said. Speaking. “With these ideas, you will gain the confidence you need to move forward, but above all, the humility to ask questions.”

In a tech world full of egos, it’s refreshing to hear Ternus utter the word “humble.” Best of all, they don’t seem to have an X account.

What projects did John Ternus lead at Apple?

Ternus’ first project at Apple involved testing parts of the Apple Cinema Display, the first computer monitor.

“At one point in my first year, I found myself in a shopping mall. I was far from home. In the middle of the night, I was using a magnifying glass to count the number of cracks on the screw head (…) and I was arguing with the seller because these parts had 35 grooves. He had to have a commemorative 25 “Tercomus”.

As Ternus climbed the corporate ladder, his responsibilities grew. He may not be able to spend a lot of time analyzing structures, but he still seems to take pride in getting the details right. Recently interviewWhen Ternus was asked about his favorite memory of Steve Jobs, he mentioned the Apple co-founder’s interest in the arts.

“(The job) was moving a piece of furniture, a chest of drawers, and pulling it away from the wall and looking back and just thinking, you know, the carpenter made it beautiful,” Ternus said. “It finished as good as the rest, although no one would have seen it, would they?

From there, he led the hardware development behind all Apple products, overseeing launches such as AirPods, Apple Watch, and Vision Pro. He also contributed to major technology upgrades at Apple, such as Apple’s transition from Intel chips to proprietary chips. Apple silicon.

Recently, Ternus was involved in the production process MacBook NeoApple’s new, affordable laptop that keeps costs down through clever hardware design techniques, such as using the iPhone to power the device.

“We don’t want to ship junk. We want to ship quality products that have the Apple experience, the Apple brand.” To do this with Neo it is necessary to build something new from the ground up (…) using the technologies that we have been developing like Apple silicon, and the kind of technology that we have developed for many years, building Macs, and building phones, let’s say all iPads, ” Tom’s manager.

As CEO, Ternus must steer Apple through its challenges to catch the AI ​​race and figure out what to do with the technology behind Vision Pro.

What else do we know about John Ternus?

Ternus was on the swim team at Penn. For his major project, he developed a feeding arm that people with quadriplegia can control and move their head.

According to public records of political contributions, Ternus gave $2,900 to Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in 2021.

Otherwise, Ternus has had little history.