Apple is quietly orchestrating its most vital management transition in additional than a decade, and on the middle of succession planning sits John Ternus, the corporate’s 50-year-old senior vp of {hardware} engineering. As Tim Prepare dinner approaches his sixty fifth birthday subsequent month, business observers and Apple insiders more and more view Ternus because the more than likely candidate to inherit the reins of one of many world’s most precious expertise firms, in keeping with a brand new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who has reported precisely on Apple for years because of sources deep inside the firm.
The hypothesis intensified after Apple’s chief working officer Jeff Williams, as soon as thought-about Prepare dinner’s pure successor, stepped down from operational duties in July and can go away the corporate by 12 months’s finish. With Williams out of competition, Gurman says Ternus has emerged as “the most likely heir apparent.”
Ternus brings a mixture of technical experience and institutional data to the succession dialog. In accordance with his LinkedIn profile, the mechanical engineer joined Apple’s product design staff in 2001 and has overseen {hardware} engineering for just about each main product within the firm’s present portfolio. His fingerprints are on each era of iPad, the newest iPhone lineup, and AirPods. He performed an important position within the Mac’s transition to Apple Silicon. He additionally had a outstanding position throughout Apple’s most up-to-date keynotes, introducing merchandise like the brand new iPhone Air.
The timing of Ternus’s elevated visibility isn’t coincidental. Apple’s public relations groups have begun “putting the spotlight on Ternus,” in keeping with Gurman, signaling the corporate could also be making ready for a gradual transition of energy. Past product launches, Ternus has taken on duties that reach nicely past conventional {hardware} engineering, influencing product highway maps, options, and strategic choices sometimes reserved for extra senior executives.
At 50, Ternus mirrors Prepare dinner’s age when he turned CEO in 2011, positioning him for probably a decade or extra of management. This longevity issue appeals to Apple’s board of administrators, preferring stability in management transitions. His engineering background additionally matches the place Apple goes as an organization, exploring rising applied sciences like synthetic intelligence and blended actuality.
Ternus’s path to Cupertino
Ternus’s journey to the highest of Apple started on the College of Pennsylvania, the place he distinguished himself each academically and athletically. He graduated in 1997 with a bachelor of science in engineering, majoring in mechanical engineering. However Ternus wasn’t simply targeted on his research—he was a aggressive swimmer who made his mark within the pool.
A 1994 report within the Day by day Pennsylvanian revealed Ternus’s athletic prowess when he gained each the 50-meter freestyle and 200-meter particular person medley at a college swimming competitors. Extra remarkably, Ternus is an “all-time letter winner” for the UPenn males’s swimming staff, representing the varsity swim staff a file variety of occasions.
The early years: from VR to Apple
After commencement, Ternus joined Digital Analysis Methods as a mechanical engineer. Digital Analysis Methods, whereas not broadly identified as we speak, was a part of the early digital actuality wave of the Eighties and Nineteen Nineties, engaged on VR headsets and immersive applied sciences. This four-year stint uncovered Ternus to cutting-edge show expertise and human-computer interfaces—expertise that may show invaluable throughout his later work on merchandise just like the Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional.
Ternus joined Apple’s product design staff in 2001, at a pivotal second within the firm’s historical past. Steve Jobs had returned, the iMac had revitalized the corporate, and Apple was making ready to launch merchandise that may redefine whole industries. Beginning as a comparatively junior member of the product design staff, Ternus initially labored on exterior Mac displays.
By 2013, Ternus had been promoted to vp of {hardware} engineering, overseeing AirPods, Mac, and iPad growth. His portfolio expanded in 2020 when he took cost of iPhone {hardware} engineering, beforehand overseen straight by Dan Riccio. When Riccio stepped down in January 2021 to concentrate on the Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional undertaking, Ternus was promoted to senior vp of {hardware} engineering, making him a member of Apple’s govt staff.
Apple’s public relations groups have begun “putting the spotlight on Ternus,” in keeping with Gurman, signaling the corporate could also be making ready for a gradual transition of energy. This shift is clear in Ternus’s elevated visibility at product launches and business occasions. He has turn into an everyday presenter at Apple’s keynote occasions, revealing refreshes of the iMac and MacBook Professional, introducing the 2018 iPad Professionals, unveiling the iMac Professional, and presenting the fully redesigned 2019 Mac Professional. Crucially, Ternus was additionally liable for unveiling Apple Silicon to the world, in addition to the brand new iPhone Air.
“Ternus stands out,” Gurman wrote in his newest report. “He’s charismatic and well-regarded by Apple loyalists and trusted by Prepare dinner, who has granted Ternus extra duties. The chief has emerged as a key decision-maker on product highway maps, options, and methods, extending his affect past the normal scope of a {hardware} engineering chief.
“When Apple began selling the iPhone 17 lineup last month, it was Ternus who ushered in customers to the company’s Regent Street store in London (a role Cook served at Apple’s Fifth Avenue location),” Gurman continued.
Apple’s management in transition
The succession query has gained urgency as Apple faces broader govt turnover. John Giannandrea, the senior vp overseeing Apple’s AI technique, reportedly has an unsure future following setbacks with Siri growth, in keeping with Gurman, who added that {hardware} applied sciences chief Johny Srouji is “evaluating his future,” and environmental coverage chief Lisa Jackson can be contemplating retirement.
For a corporation that has prided itself on organizational stability all through Prepare dinner’s tenure, the simultaneous departure of a number of senior executives marks a big shift. Prepare dinner himself has given blended indicators about retirement plans, telling CNBC in January that he can’t envision “doing nothing” and can “always want to work.” Nonetheless, Bloomberg reviews Prepare dinner could ultimately transition to a md position, much like strikes by Jeff Bezos at Amazon and Invoice Gates at Microsoft.
The selection of Ternus would signify Apple’s desire for selling from inside reasonably than searching for exterior management. It will additionally sign a shift towards prioritizing technical innovation over purely operational excellence, as the corporate seeks to reinvigorate product classes past the iPhone that generates the vast majority of its income. The corporate’s struggles with the Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional and its efforts to compete in synthetic intelligence recommend technical management could also be precisely what Apple wants for its subsequent chapter.
For this story, Fortune used generative AI to assist with an preliminary draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the data earlier than publishing.
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