As Key Talent Abandons Apple, Meet the New Generation of Leaders Taking On the Old Guard

As Key Talent Abandons Apple, Meet the New Generation of Leaders Taking On the Old Guard

With “hardware guy” John Ternus as frontrunner for the next CEO, can Apple overtake its ex-employees at OpenAI and Meta?

John Ternus emerges as Apple’s hardware-first choice to succeed Tim Cook

In Cupertino, the leadership carousel is spinning again. Veteran executives are stepping back, high-profile designers are decamping to OpenAI and Meta, and one name keeps rising to the top: John Ternus. The long-serving “hardware guy”, who has led hardware engineering since 2020 and fronted key launches such as the iPhone Air, is widely seen as the favorite to succeed Tim Cook as CEO as soon as next year. Analysts say the recent stream of succes…