New Apple CEO John Ternus to overhaul leadership team as senior executives near retirement

Apple is entering a new leadership era as John Ternus takes over as chief executive from Tim Cook, ending Cook’s 15-year tenure at the company’s helm.

Ternus officially assumes the CEO position on September 1, inheriting a technology giant that has grown dramatically in size and value during Cook’s leadership.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman expects the CEO transition to be followed by a broader reshaping of Apple’s senior leadership team over the next several years.

Several long-serving executives are reportedly approaching retirement, leaving Ternus with the challenge of building a new generation of leaders while maintaining Apple’s product-focused culture.

Among those potentially nearing the end of their Apple careers are hardware chief Johnny Srouji, retail and people executive Deirdre O’Brien, former CFO Luca Maestri and marketing chief Greg Joswiak.

Srouji has played a central role in Apple’s transition from Intel processors to its internally designed Apple Silicon chips, helping strengthen the company’s control over hardware and software integration.

His eventual departure could lead Apple to reconsider how engineering and technology responsibilities are organized at the highest levels of the company.

O’Brien, who joined Apple in 1988, has overseen the company’s global retail operations while also managing its people organization.

Her extensive experience and institutional knowledge have made her one of the company’s longest-serving senior leaders, including during Apple’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Maestri recently stepped down as Apple’s chief financial officer but continues to hold a senior corporate-services position, allowing him to retain responsibility for areas that new CFO Kevan Parekh may gradually assume.

Joswiak, who joined Apple in 1986 and worked on early Macintosh products, has become one of the most recognizable figures in the company’s marketing organization.

His possible retirement could prompt Apple to elevate new marketing leadership, with executives including Lilian Rincon and Kaiann Drance reportedly among potential successors.

The expected departures would represent more than routine executive turnover because several of the individuals involved have shaped Apple’s strategy for decades.

Ternus will therefore have to balance continuity with succession planning as he prepares to replace some of the executives who helped build the modern Apple.

The new CEO brings extensive product and engineering experience to the role, having joined Apple in 2001 and worked across major product categories including the iPad, Mac, AirPods and iPhone.

He became Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering in 2021 and has been closely involved in the company’s hardware development.

Unlike Cook, whose background was rooted heavily in operations and supply-chain management, Ternus arrives with a career centered more directly on product engineering.

That background could influence Apple’s priorities as it navigates the next phase of competition in artificial intelligence, computing and consumer technology.

Cook’s departure closes a remarkable chapter for Apple. When he succeeded co-founder Steve Jobs in 2011, the company was valued at roughly $350 billion.

During Cook’s tenure, Apple expanded into a multi-trillion-dollar technology powerhouse while building an enormous ecosystem around the iPhone, Mac, iPad, Apple Watch and services.

Ternus now takes control of that powerful business at a time when Apple faces growing pressure to demonstrate that it can compete effectively in the artificial intelligence race.

The company has continued developing increasingly powerful chips and recently introduced upgraded Mac computers designed to handle demanding AI workloads.

However, the broader AI landscape presents a different challenge, with rivals moving aggressively to integrate generative AI into software, search, devices and digital assistants.

For Ternus, the immediate task will be maintaining Apple’s enormous existing strengths while deciding which parts of Cook’s strategy should remain and where a significant change is required.

The potential retirement of several veteran executives could give him an opportunity to reshape Apple’s leadership structure rather than simply replace individuals one by one.

Over the next three years, the company could therefore experience one of its most significant executive transitions in decades.

The success of Ternus’s early leadership may ultimately depend not only on the products Apple launches, but also on how effectively he builds the leadership team that will guide the company into its next era.