Apple revealed Monday that John Ternus, a University of Pennsylvania graduate who has long served as the tech giant’s head of hardware engineering, will succeed Tim Cook as CEO on Sept. 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cook, who has led Apple since 2011, called Ternus a “visionary” who has played a pivotal role in a wide array of product launches during his 25 years with the company.\u00a0<\/p>\n
MORE:\u00a0Evil Genius Beer Co. acquires national brand 21st Amendment Brewery<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cJohn Ternus has the mind of an engineer, the soul of an innovator, and the heart to lead with integrity and with honor,” Cook, 65, said<\/a> in a news release.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ternus, 50, emerged last year as a front-runner<\/a> to succeed Cook.\u00a0He played a pivotal role in transitioning Macs from using Intel’s chips to adopting Apple’s own in 2020, and he was a key decision-maker in setting price points for the inclusion of top-end features in newer iPhones. Ternus also has worked on major developments and updates to the iPad, Mac, AirPods, Apple Watch and the new MacBook Neo, whose $599 entry point has made the laptop a hot seller this year<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHaving spent almost my entire career at Apple, I have been lucky to have worked under Steve Jobs and to have had Tim Cook as my mentor,” Ternus said\u00a0in a statement provided by Apple. “It has been a privilege to help shape the products and experiences that have changed so much of how we interact with the world and with one another. I am filled with optimism about what we can achieve in the years to come.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Cook will become the executive chairman of Apple’s board of directors, and Ternus will join the board upon becoming CEO.\u00a0Arthur Levinson, Apple\u2019s non-executive chairman for the past 15 years, will become its lead independent director.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ternus, a California native, graduated from Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science in 1997. His senior project \u00a0involved designing a robotic feeding arm that quadriplegics could control using head motions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ternus also was an accomplished swimmer at Penn, winning the 50-meter freestyle and a 200-meter individual medley during a dual meet against Swarthmore in 1994. Records from Penn’s athletics department<\/a> list Ternus as an all-time letter winner for being among the most distinguished swimmers in school history. He remains closely connected to the Ivy League school, where he gave a keynote address<\/a>\u00a0for the engineering school’s undergraduate commencement in 2024.<\/p>\n Ternus will be Apple’s first CEO to come from a hardware background in more than three decades. He’ll take the helm after a period of explosive growth under Cook, whose leadership saw the company’s market cap surge from $350 billion to $4 trillion, CNBC reported<\/a>. Only NVIDIA and Alphabet have a higher valuation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cook was long viewed as an operations leader who reinvented Apple’s supply chain and logistics pipeline, both of which have faced pressure in recent years amid materials shortages, political headwinds and tariffs from the Trump administration. A global memory shortage spurred by the AI race could delay the launch of updates to some Apple products over the coming year, Bloomberg reported<\/a> Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n Apple has trailed many of its competitors in AI development and is expected to invest in adding more capabilities to its Siri assistant later this year. The company plans to\u00a0launch an updated version of Siri<\/a> that relies on Google’s Gemini AI model.\u00a0<\/p>\n