Apple is intensifying the spotlight on hardware chief John Ternus as an executive succession looms, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says in his latest “Power On” newsletter.
Gurman says that for a company of its size, Apple Inc. has maintained a “remarkably stable C-suite” over the past decade. There have been notable departures — including design boss Jony Ive and retail head Angela Ahrendts in 2019 — but Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has largely persuaded key executives to delay retirement. Phil Schiller, for example, stepped down as Apple’s top marketing executive in 2020 but currently serves as an Apple Fellow, a high-ranking honorary position at Apple, where he is responsible for leading the App Store and Apple Events.
Ternus may be a prime candidate to replace Cook (though he’s not expected to retire anytime soon), as he’s the youngest person among Apple execs at 50. The others range from 53 (Chief Financial Officer Kevan Parekh) to 64 (Cook).
Here is Ternus’ profile at the Apple Leadership page: John Ternus is Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, reporting to CEO Tim Cook. John leads all hardware engineering, including the teams behind iPhone, iPad, Mac, AirPods, and more.
John joined Apple’s Product Design team in 2001 and has been a vice president of Hardware Engineering since 2013. Throughout his tenure at Apple, John has overseen hardware engineering work on a variety of groundbreaking products including every generation and model of iPad, the latest iPhone lineup, and AirPods. He has been a key leader in the ongoing transition of the Mac to Apple silicon.
According to the Sellers Research Group (that’s met) another likely candidate to succeed Cook is Craig Federighi. He’s the current senior vice president of software engineering at the company? He seems like a natural heir to the throne and he is, arguably, the best “face” of Apple during online and live media events.
Federighi oversees the development of iOS and macOS. He returned to Apple in 2009 to lead macOS engineering, and in 2012 took on responsibility for iOS as well.
Prior to his return, Federighi worked at NeXT, followed by Apple, and then spent a decade at Ariba, an internet e-commerce pioneer where he held several roles including chief technology officer. Craig holds a Master of Science degree in Computer Science and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley.
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