Ternus Takes Over as Apple CEO Tuesday
Ternus Takes Over as Apple CEO Tuesday
The News
Tim Cook hands the Apple CEO job to hardware engineering chief John Ternus on Tuesday, Sept. 1, ending 15 years at the top of the world's most valuable company.
The handover has not happened yet. CNN reports Ternus takes over "effective September 1," and the Financial Times says Cook "hands over to John Ternus on Tuesday after 15 years."
Cook is not leaving Apple. He becomes executive chairman of Apple's board of directors, CNN reported when the company announced the move in April.
The Numbers
Apple's stock has risen more than 2,000% during Cook's tenure, CNN reported.
CNN described Apple as a $4 trillion company at the time of April's announcement, and reported the brief $5 trillion valuation in July.
Timeline
Cook becomes CEO, succeeding Steve Jobs, after serving as Apple's chief operating officer.
Apple loses a string of senior executives, including its AI chief, its policy head and one of its top design leaders, according to CNN.
Apple announces Cook is stepping down. CNN reported that Ternus, senior vice president of hardware engineering, would take over as CEO effective Sept. 1, that Cook would become executive chairman, and that Cook would stay on as CEO through the summer to ensure a smooth transition.
Apple briefly reaches a $5 trillion market capitalization — the second company ever to hit that mark, per CNN.
The handover date named by both CNN and the Financial Times.
Reactions
"It has been the greatest privilege of my life to be the CEO of Apple and to have been trusted to lead such an extraordinary company," Cook said in the April press release quoted by CNN.
"(Cook) managed to scale the iPhone to a level that no one would have thought was likely or possible over that period of time," Harvard Business School professor David Yoffie, who wrote a case study on Apple and Cook, told CNN.
Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management, who has followed Apple since 2004, told CNN that Cook was as much "a statesman" as a CEO — a reference to managing Apple's exposure to both Washington and Beijing.
MarketWatch argued that Cook, long dismissed as "not a product guy," instead re-engineered the company itself, proving supply-chain mastery could carry Apple to new heights.
What's Next
Ternus inherits an aging executive bench. Citing Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Gizmodo reported that a leadership shakeup is expected soon after the handover, and that much of Apple's senior team is close to retirement age.
Per Gurman's reporting as described by Gizmodo, the executives Ternus is expected to have to replace over roughly the next three years include hardware SVP Johny Srouji, retail and people chief Deirdre O'Brien, former CFO Luca Maestri — now vice president of corporate services — and marketing chief Greg Joswiak.
Gizmodo, citing Gurman, said Apple is looking at AI marketing head Lilian Rincon and iPhone marketing chief Kaiann Drance as possible marketing successors. Apple has not confirmed those moves.
Ternus also arrives with recent hires already in place: CFO Kevan Parekh and COO Sabih Khan.
More
Cook's record is built less on new gadgets than on what CNN called making the iPhone feel essential to everything from buying coffee to paying a credit card bill — the services and accessories business he expanded over the past decade, alongside pushes into entertainment, health and wearables.
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