Meet John Ternus, the 51-year-old former swimming champ who will succeed Tim Cook as Apple CEO - Fortune

Apple has officially announced its most significant leadership transition in more than a decade.

John Ternus, the company’s 51-year-old senior vice president of hardware engineering, has been named as CEO Tim Cook’s successor, effective Sept. 1. Cook will become executive chairman of the board, and he will remain CEO through the summer working on the transition.

“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. “I love Apple with all of my being,” adding Ternus has the “mind of an engineer, the soul of an innovator, and the heart to lead with integrity and honor.”

Industry observers and Apple insiders had long viewed Ternus as the most likely candidate to inherit the reins of one of the world’s most valuable technology companies, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who has reported accurately on Apple for years thanks to sources deep within the company.

The speculation intensified after Apple’s chief operating officer, Jeff Williams, once considered Cook’s natural successor, stepped down from operational responsibilities in July 2025. With Williams out of contention, Gurman said Ternus emerged as “the most likely heir apparent.”

Ternus brings a combination of technical expertise and institutional knowledge to the succession conversation. According to his LinkedIn profile, the mechanical engineer joined Apple’s product design team in 2001 and has overseen hardware engineering for virtually every major product in the company’s current portfolio. His fingerprints are on every generation of iPad, the latest iPhone lineup, and AirPods. He played a crucial role in the Mac’s transition to Apple silicon. He also had a prominent role during Apple’s most recent keynotes, introducing products like the new iPhone Air.

“He is a visionary whose contributions to Apple over 25 years are already too numerous to count, and he is without question the right person to lead Apple into the future,” Cook said in a statement.

Apple’s public relations teams had also begun “putting the spotlight on Ternus,” according to Gurman, signaling the company may be preparing for a gradual transition of power. Beyond product launches, Ternus had taken on responsibilities that extend well beyond traditional hardware engineering, influencing product road maps, features, and strategic decisions typically reserved for more senior executives.

At 51, Ternus mirrors Cook’s age when he became CEO in 2011, positioning him for potentially a decade or more of leadership. This longevity factor likely appealed to Apple’s board of directors, who prefer stability in leadership transitions. His engineering background also matches where Apple is going as a company, exploring emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and mixed reality.

Ternus’s path to Cupertino

Ternus’s journey to the top of Apple began at the University of Pennsylvania, where he distinguished himself both academically and athletically. He graduated in 1997 with a bachelor of science in engineering, majoring in mechanical engineering. But Ternus wasn’t just focused on his studies—he was a competitive swimmer who made his mark in the pool.

A 1994 report in the Daily Pennsylvanian revealed Ternus’s athletic prowess when he won both the 50-meter freestyle and 200-meter individual medley at a university swimming competition. More remarkably, Ternus is an “all-time letter winner” for the UPenn men’s swimming team, representing the varsity swim team a record number of times.

The early years: from VR to Apple

After graduation, Ternus joined Virtual Research Systems as a mechanical engineer. Virtual Research Systems, while not widely known today, was part of the early virtual reality wave of the 1980s and 1990s, working on VR headsets and immersive technologies. This four-year stint exposed Ternus to cutting-edge display technology and human-computer interfaces—experience that would prove invaluable during his later work on products like the Apple Vision Pro.

Ternus joined Apple’s product design team in 2001, at a pivotal moment in the company’s history. Steve Jobs had returned, the iMac had revitalized the company, and Apple was preparing to launch products that would redefine entire industries. Starting as a relatively junior member of the product design team, Ternus initially worked on external Mac monitors.