In 15 years it will be Tim Cook Hand over the role of Apple CEO to John Ternus, the company’s senior vice president of hardware engineering. As of September 1, Ternus will lead one of the world’s most valuable companies, but unless you’re a dedicated Apple fan, you’ve probably never heard of this man who’s stayed out of the spotlight until now.
How long has John Ternus worked at Apple?
Ternus has worked at Apple for almost half of his life – now 51 years old, he has been with the company for 25 years.
He joined Apple’s product design team in 2001 as his second job out of college (his first was a small maker of virtual reality devices called Virtual Research Systems). Until 2013, Ternus was VP of hardware engineering and was promoted to the role of SVP in 2021. rumor As a possible successor, Apple may be looking for someone to lead the company for a long time. After all, Apple has only had two CEOs this millennium, so it seems that continuity of leadership is important to the company.
Ternus reports to Cook, whom he considers a mentor, and leads all hardware engineering at Apple. That’s a pretty big deal for a company known for ubiquitous hardware like the iPhone and MacBook.
In his 2024 commencement speech at his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania’s engineering school, Ternus reflected on the lessons he learned at Apple, which might tell us a bit about his character — or at least a sanitized version of it.
“Always think you’re as smart as everyone else in the room, but never think you know as much as they do,” Ternus said. output. “With this mindset, you’ll find the confidence to move forward, and more importantly, the humility to ask questions.”
In a tech ecosystem populated by abrasive egos, it’s refreshing to hear Ternus say the word “humility.” Better yet, he doesn’t have an X account.
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What projects did John Ternus lead at Apple?
Ternus’ earliest project at Apple involved scrutinizing parts for the Apple Cinema Display, an early desktop monitor.
“In the first year, I found myself at the supplier’s company. I was far from home. It was a little past midnight, I was counting the number of threads on the head of the screw with a magnifying glass (…) and I was arguing with the supplier, because there were 35 threads in these parts. They should have been 25,” he recalled in his speech. “I remember stepping back for a minute and saying, ‘What am I doing?’ Is this normal?”
As Ternus climbed the corporate ladder, his responsibilities increased. He may not spend much time analyzing screws anymore, but he still prides himself on getting the little details right. Recently interviewWhen Ternus was asked about his favorite memory of Steve Jobs, he mentioned the former Apple co-founder’s focus on craftsmanship.
“(Jobs) carried a piece of furniture, a drawer, and pulled it off the wall and looked back and just thought the carpenter who made it did it beautifully,” Ternus said. “Even though nobody’s going to see it, the back end is just as nicely finished as the rest, right? And I think about that all the time because I think it perfectly exemplifies what we’re doing here.”
From there, he went on to lead the hardware development behind products in the Apple ecosystem, overseeing introductions such as AirPods, Apple Watch and Vision Pro. He was also involved in major technical improvements at Apple, such as Apple’s switch from Intel chips to its own proprietary one. Apple silicone.
Most recently, he was engaged in the production of Ternus MacBook NeoApple’s new, more affordable laptop model that cuts costs through some smart trade-offs in hardware design, like using the iPhone chip to power the device.
“We never want to ship junk. We want to ship great products that have the Apple experience, Apple quality. To do that, we have to create something completely new with Neo (…) using both the technology we’ve developed as Apple silicon and the kind of expertise we’ve developed over many years building Macs, phones and iPads.” Tom’s Guide.
As CEO, Ternus will have to guide Apple to catch up in the AI race and figure out what to do with the technology behind Vision Pro.
What else do we know about John Ternus?
Ternus was on the swim team at Penn. For his senior project, he built a feeding arm that quadriplegics could control with head movements.
according to public records one of the political donors, Ternus, donated $2,900 to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in 2021.
Otherwise, Ternus has kept a relatively low profile.
