Part of our iPhone 18 hub: every buy-or-wait guide for Apple's September 9 event.

John Ternus and Tim Cook walking together on a path at Apple Park — Photo: Apple Newsroom press image. John Ternus (left) with Tim Cook at Apple Park, from the April 2026 succession announcement.

Apple · Leadership · Apple watchers

Who is John Ternus? Apple's new CEO, explained

By Siddharth Kumar · Updated September 2026

John Ternus is Apple's chief executive officer as of September 1, 2026, succeeding Tim Cook, who became executive chairman of the board. Ternus joined Apple in 2001 on the product design team, ran hardware engineering as a vice president from 2013 and as senior vice president from 2021, and oversaw the hardware behind the iPad, AirPods, Apple Watch, Mac, and iPhone lines, including the iPhone 17 family. He holds a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Pennsylvania. His first keynote as CEO is the September 9 iPhone event.

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For fifteen years, 'Apple's CEO' meant one person. That changed on Tuesday, September 1, 2026, when John Ternus, the engineer who has run Apple's hardware division since 2021, formally took over from Tim Cook. The handover had been announced back in April, so the day itself was quiet: a memo to staff, a few headlines, and a stock bump. But if you own an iPhone, a Mac, or a Watch, this is the person whose decisions will shape what those products become over the next decade. Here is who he is, what he actually built, how the transition works, and what he has said about the September 9 event.

	John Ternus	Tim Cook
Role from Sept 1, 2026	Chief executive officer; joins the board	Executive chairman of the board
Joined Apple	2001, product design team	1998, operations (from Compaq)
Training	B.S. mechanical engineering, University of Pennsylvania	Industrial engineering, Auburn; MBA, Duke
Path to the top job	VP of hardware engineering 2013; SVP 2021	COO, then CEO in August 2011
Known for	iPad, AirPods, Apple Watch, Mac and iPhone hardware; iPhone 17 lineup; MacBook Neo	Supply chain, services growth, Apple Watch and AirPods era; stock up roughly 2,258% as CEO
First big stage as CEO	September 9, 2026 iPhone event	iPhone 4S launch, October 2011

The short version: an engineer, not an operator

Tim Cook came up through operations and supply chain. John Ternus came up through the lab. He joined Apple in 2001 as a product designer, was promoted to vice president of hardware engineering in 2013, and has been senior vice president of hardware engineering since 2021, which means every piece of Apple hardware you have bought in the last five years shipped on his watch. Before Apple he worked as a mechanical engineer at Virtual Research Systems, a small company that built virtual reality headsets in the 1990s, an odd little detail given that he later oversaw the hardware for Apple Vision Pro. Apple's own announcement credits him with the iPad, AirPods, Apple Watch, Mac, and iPhone lines, calls out the iPhone 17 family and the MacBook Neo specifically, and highlights reliability work that rarely makes headlines but matters to anyone who keeps a phone for four years.

How the handover actually worked

Apple announced the succession on April 20, 2026, and set September 1 as the effective date, giving Cook the summer to work alongside Ternus before stepping back. The board approved it unanimously. Cook did not leave: he is now executive chairman, a role Apple says will include representing the company with governments and regulators around the world, which is where Cook spent an increasing share of his time in his final years as CEO anyway. Arthur Levinson, who had been Apple's non-executive chairman for fifteen years, became lead independent director to make room. Ternus joined the board. Cook's line in the announcement is the one everyone quoted: John Ternus 'has the mind of an engineer, the soul of an innovator, and the heart to lead with integrity.' Ternus's own statement was brief: he was 'profoundly grateful for this opportunity to carry Apple's mission forward.'

What he said on day one

Ternus's first act as CEO was a company-wide memo on September 1, and it was more revealing for its tone than its content. He thanked Cook as 'a CEO who led with his values and with such decency and humanity,' promised continuity, and talked about 'the incredible products already in the works and the ones we haven't even imagined yet that we'll dream up and create together.' The line that made the news was about the coming week: 'We have a huge launch next week that's going to be phenomenal.' Marketing chief Greg Joswiak amplified it on X, saying Apple had 'more to say' on September 9. What the memo did not mention, as 9to5Mac pointed out, was AI or Siri, the area where Apple has taken the most criticism over the last two years. Read into that what you like. Apple shares had their best day in over a month on the news.

What analysts think the choice signals

The read from outside Apple is fairly consistent: picking the hardware chief over a services or operations executive is a statement that Apple intends to compete in AI through devices rather than through chatbots. Babak Hafezi of American University told Al Jazeera the appointment shows Apple 'doubling down on hardware innovation as a core strategy,' folding AI into products rather than treating it as a separate business. Aleksandar Tomic of Boston College made the gold-rush comparison, calling Apple a seller of 'picks and shovels': it builds the chips that run AI on your own device rather than trying to out-build OpenAI or Anthropic in the cloud. The challenges the same reporting lists are real and not new. Apple's generative AI rollout has been slower than rivals'. Memory prices are rising, which pressures iPhone and Mac margins. The China trade relationship remains complicated. And the rebuilt, LLM-based Siri that Apple showed at WWDC still has to ship broadly and work.

What it means for you, the person who buys the stuff

In the short term, very little changes, and that is by design. Product roadmaps at Apple run two to three years ahead, so the iPhone 18 Pro and the foldable iPhone expected on September 9 were planned and engineered while Cook was CEO and Ternus was running hardware. In that sense the first Ternus keynote is showing products that were already his. The longer-term question is whether a CEO who spent 25 years obsessing over enclosures, thermals, and reliability tilts Apple back toward hardware ambition after a decade in which services carried the growth story. The recent evidence points that way: an all-new chip generation in the Mac mini and Mac Studio last week, a first foldable iPhone reportedly this month, a Home Hub and a redesigned iPad mini rumored for October. If you were waiting for a signal about whether Apple hardware is about to get more interesting, this is a fairly loud one. If you just want to know whether to buy an iPhone right now, the answer has nothing to do with the CEO and everything to do with September 9.

Pros

A 25-year hardware engineer now sets Apple priorities, which favors device quality and reliability
The transition was planned for months, with Cook staying on as executive chairman for continuity
His first keynote (September 9) shows products he already oversaw, so there is no early-CEO learning curve on the lineup

Cons

His first memo said nothing about AI or Siri, the area customers are most impatient about
Rising memory costs and reported iPhone Pro price increases land in his first month

Apple iPhone 17 Pro (256GB, Deep Blue) — Amazon · See price on Amazon

The verdict

John Ternus is the most product-focused CEO Apple has had since Steve Jobs, and unlike Jobs he is an actual engineer. That matters for the next five years of hardware and matters almost nothing for the next five days of your shopping decisions. Watch September 9 for what it tells you about the new era. Do not buy or skip anything before September 9 because the name on the CEO's door changed.

Who should skip this

If you were hoping the new CEO means immediate price cuts, a faster Siri, or a changed iPhone lineup, temper that. The September 9 products were locked in long ago, reported Pro prices are going up rather than down because of memory costs, and Siri's timeline is a software story that no leadership change speeds up. Skip the CEO tea-leaf reading entirely if all you want is a good phone: the buying advice in our September 9 guide is unchanged.

How we chose

The facts here come from Apple's April 20, 2026 newsroom announcement of the succession, the September 1 all-staff memo Ternus sent on his first day (published in full by 9to5Mac and MacRumors), and reporting from NPR, Al Jazeera, CNBC, and Bloomberg around the handover. Ternus's career dates are Apple's own. Where a claim is an analyst's opinion rather than a fact, it is named as such. We do not know Ternus personally and have not interviewed him; this is a reported profile, not an insider account.

Frequently asked

Who is Apple's CEO now?

John Ternus. He became chief executive officer of Apple on September 1, 2026, succeeding Tim Cook, who is now executive chairman of the board. The succession was announced on April 20, 2026.

Did Tim Cook leave Apple?

No. Cook stepped down as CEO but stayed at Apple as executive chairman of the board of directors. Apple said he will assist with certain areas, including engaging with policymakers around the world. Arthur Levinson, the previous non-executive chairman, became lead independent director.

What did John Ternus do before becoming CEO?

He ran Apple hardware engineering: vice president from 2013 and senior vice president from 2021. He joined Apple in 2001 on the product design team and, before that, worked as a mechanical engineer at Virtual Research Systems, which made VR headsets. He has a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

What products is John Ternus known for?

Apple credits him with hardware across the iPad, AirPods, Apple Watch, Mac, and iPhone lines, and specifically names the iPhone 17 lineup and the MacBook Neo. As hardware chief he also oversaw Apple Vision Pro and the Apple silicon transition on the Mac side of the hardware organisation.

What did Ternus say in his first memo?

He thanked Tim Cook as a leader who 'led with his values and with such decency and humanity,' spoke of products 'already in the works and the ones we haven't even imagined yet,' and teased 'a huge launch next week that's going to be phenomenal,' referring to the September 9 event. The memo did not mention AI or Siri.

Is the September 9 event his first as CEO?

Yes. The 'Surprise and Shine' event on Wednesday, September 9, 2026, at 10 a.m. Pacific is the first Apple keynote with Ternus as chief executive. The iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and a first foldable iPhone are widely expected, along with new Apple Watches and possibly AirPods 5.