John Ternus takes over as Apple CEO as Tim Cook becomes chair

John Ternus is Apple's chief executive as of September 1, 2026, with Tim Cook moving to executive chairman of the board. Apple announced the handoff in an April 20 press release. apple.com/leadership now lists the new titles.

Two other moves landed the same day. Arthur Levinson shifted from non-executive chairman to lead independent director, and Ternus joined the board. The person now at the top ran hardware engineering rather than operations or finance.

Ternus joined Apple's product design group in 2001, became vice president of hardware engineering in 2013, and has sat on the executive team as senior vice president of hardware engineering since 2021. He holds a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Cook framed the pick this way: "John Ternus has the mind of an engineer, the soul of an innovator, and the heart to lead with integrity."

The company he inherits is huge. Apple put its market value at roughly $350 billion to $4 trillion across Cook's tenure, a rise of more than 1,000 percent, with annual revenue climbing from $108 billion in 2011 to more than $416 billion in 2025. Services alone is now a business worth more than $100 billion a year, and the installed base sits above 2.5 billion devices.

One quieter change on the leadership page goes beyond what the April release spelled out. Johny Srouji, who has overseen Apple's custom silicon, is now listed as Chief Hardware Officer, a C-level title above the senior vice president rank he held before. An engineer in the CEO seat and silicon at a chief-officer post puts custom hardware at the center of the Ternus era.

The September 9 keynote was the first product event on his calendar, even though the lineup was greenlit under Cook.

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