John Ternus

John Ternus was born in May 1975.^[1] He received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997.^[2] While at Penn, Ternus competed on the men's swimming team.^[3] For his senior project, he developed a mechanical feeding arm operable by individuals with quadriplegia using head movements.^[4]

Ternus began his career as a mechanical engineer designing virtual reality headsets at Virtual Research Systems.^[5] He joined Apple in 2001 as a member of the product design team, working first on the Apple Cinema Display.^[6][7] In 2013, he was appointed vice president of hardware engineering under Dan Riccio, overseeing the development of the AirPods, Mac and iPad product lines.

In 2020, he was also put in charge of iPhone hardware, previously overseen directly by Riccio.^[8][9] He was promoted to senior vice president of hardware engineering in 2021, replacing Riccio,^[8] and was put in charge of Apple Watch hardware in late 2022.^[10] Bloomberg News reported that Ternus was the "youngest member of Apple's executive team", and described him as "charismatic and well-liked".^[8][9]

During his tenure as senior vice president, he had been widely reported by media to be the potential successor to Tim Cook as the company's next chief executive.^[6][11][12] It was later announced in April 2026 that Ternus would become chief executive on September 1, 2026.^[13][14]

Ternus's hobbies include racing his Porsche at tracks such as California's Laguna Seca raceway.^[15] He is also a cycling and car racing enthusiast, and has taken colleagues to Washington state for off-road rally car racing.^[16]

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