John Ternus

John Ternus (born May 1975) is an American engineer and business executive who has served as the senior vice president of hardware engineering at Apple Inc. since 2021, reporting to the company's CEO, Tim Cook. He is scheduled to succeed Cook as CEO on September 1, 2026.

Ternus received a Bachelor of Science in Engineering with a major in mechanical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997. While at Penn, Ternus competed on the men's swimming team. For his senior project, he developed a mechanical feeding arm operable by individuals with quadriplegia using head movements.

Ternus began his career as a mechanical engineer designing virtual reality headsets at Virtual Research Systems. He joined Apple in 2001 as a member of the product design team, working first on the Apple Cinema Display. In 2013, he was appointed vice president of hardware engineering under Dan Riccio, overseeing the development of AirPods, Mac and iPad.

In 2020, he was also put in charge of iPhone hardware, previously overseen directly by Riccio. He was promoted to senior vice president of hardware engineering in 2021, replacing Riccio, and was put in charge of Apple Watch hardware in late 2022. Bloomberg News reported that Ternus was the "youngest member of Apple's executive team", and described him as "charismatic and well-liked". He had been widely reported by media to be the potential successor to Tim Cook as the company's next chief executive.

Ternus has presented new hardware at several WWDC events, revealing refreshes of the iMac and MacBook Pro, the 2018 iPad Pros, the iMac Pro and the redesigned 2019 Mac Pro. He has subsequently appeared as a regular presenter at Apple events.

On April 20, 2026, Cook announced that he would step down as CEO on September 1 of that year, and that Ternus would succeed him as CEO.

• List of Apple products