On Monday, it was reported that Apple CEO Tim Cook will relinquish his position on 1 September and will be succeeded by John Ternus, Apple’s long term leader in hardware engineering.
Cook will keep working for Apple but will take up the post of the executive chairman of the board.
The decision about Cook’s successor was unanimously made by the Apple board of directors and comes after what the firm said was a lengthy period of succession planning.
This is the end of an era for one of the longest-serving CEOs in business history.
When Tim Cook became the company’s CEO, in August 2011, he succeeded the company’s founder and co founder, Steve Jobs who passed away only a few weeks later due to pancreatic cancer.
Under Cook’s leadership, Apple’s market valuation jumped from about $350 billion to close to $4 trillion.
Cook inherited a company many industry observers had difficulty divorcing from its famous founder, but he led it through a major expansion in its product line and services business.
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In his time, Apple introduced the Apple Watch, AirPods, Apple Pay and Apple Vision Pro and the Mac moved from Intel processors to Apple’s own silicon chips.
Cook wrote in a public letter Monday of his years at the helm. He spoke of receiving emails from customers every morning about how Apple products had transformed their lives, calling it the greatest privilege of his career.
A hardware chief takes charge
Ternus has been working for Apple for 25 years as the head of the hardware engineering team behind Apple products like the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and AirPods.
According to Jo Ellen Pozner, associate professor of business at Santa Clara University, the new appointment indicates that “Apple is doubling down on hardware.”
Additionally, the firm revealed that Johny Srouji, senior vice president of hardware technologies at Apple, has been promoted to the newly created position of chief hardware officer.
As of 1 September, Arthur Levinson, the long time non executive chairman of Apple, will take up the new role of lead independent director.
Warren Buffett, whose investment firm, Berkshire Hathaway holds the largest stake in Apple stock, noted that “Apple would not be the Apple of today without Tim Cook.”
Meanwhile, in a tweet on X, the CEO of artificial intelligence firm OpenAI called Cook “a legend.”
Apple stocks dropped by 0.5% after hours after the announcement. Apple is scheduled to announce its earnings for the quarter ending on 30 April.
In his new position as executive chairman, Cook is expected to spend more time engaging with global policymakers where he has been one of the tech industry’s most prominent voices.
He leaves the office of the chief executive, closing one chapter for Apple but opening another under a leader who has spent his entire career building the products that define the brand.
