Tim Cook Will Step Down As CEO of Apple; John Ternus Will Succeed Him

IBL News | New York

John Ternus, currently a senior vice president of hardware engineering at Apple [in the picture], will succeed Tim Cook as CEO on September 1, while Tim Cook will assume the role of executive chairman, the company disclosed yesterday. The timing of Cook’s exit surprised analysts on Wall Street.

“Cook will continue in his role as CEO through the summer as he works closely with Ternus on a smooth transition,” Apple said in a press release. The company said in a filing that the board made the appointment on Friday.

This will be the first CEO transition for Apple since Cook, now 65, succeeded Steve Jobs in 2011, shortly before Jobs’ death. Hardware boss Ternus, 50, will become Apple’s eighth CEO.

“It has been the greatest privilege of my life to be the CEO of Apple and to have been trusted to lead such an extraordinary company,” Cook said in a statement.

Apple’s market cap, currently $4 trillion, increased by more than 20-fold on Cook’s watch, with revenue almost quadrupling to over $400 billion in the latest fiscal year.

With a net worth at close to $3 billion, according to Forbes, Tim Cook took home $74.6 million in total compensation last year, including a $3 million base salary and millions more in stock awards, according to recent regulatory filings. Cook became one of Jobs’ loyal lieutenants and was elevated to operations chief in 2005. Cook graduated from Auburn University in 1982 and received an MBA from Duke University in 1988.

In the last year, much of Cook’s public lobbying has focused on President Donald Trump, touting Apple’s plan to spend $600 billion in the U.S. over the next five years.

Ternus was hired at Apple in 2001, joining just four years after he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in mechanical engineering. At Apple, he worked on the product design team and, in 2013, became vice president of hardware engineering.

For Ternus, one of the most critical aspects of Ternus’ new job will be pushing the company deeper into AI, where it’s lagged many of its megacap peers.

IBL News | New York

This will be the first CEO transition for Apple since Cook, now 65, succeeded Steve Jobs in 2011, shortly before Jobs’ death. Hardware boss Ternus, 50, will become Apple’s eighth CEO.

“It has been the greatest privilege of my life to be the CEO of Apple and to have been trusted to lead such an extraordinary company,” Cook said in a statement.

Apple’s market cap, currently $4 trillion, increased by more than 20-fold on Cook’s watch, with revenue almost quadrupling to over $400 billion in the latest fiscal year.

In the last year, much of Cook’s public lobbying has focused on President Donald Trump, touting Apple’s plan to spend $600 billion in the U.S. over the next five years.

For Ternus, one of the most critical aspects of Ternus’ new job will be pushing the company deeper into AI, where it’s lagged many of its megacap peers.