Apple’s head of hardware John Ternus has been in charge of the Cupertino firm’s design teams since the final months of 2025, as Apple continues to groom him to take over as CEO when current top dog Tim Cook steps down, reports Bloomberg.
Cook put Ternus in charge of the Apple design teams last year. The company’s hardware and software design teams had been headed by former Apple chief operating officer Jeff Williams, until his retirement last year. When Williams retired, it was announced the design teams would report directly to Cook, but Cook handed control over to Ternus.
Design has always been led by a senior executive, due to its importance to the company. Jony Ive was in charge of the design team before he departed and it was handed over to Williams.
Ternus handles communication between design staff and the executive team. He represents the design team in executive meeting, while managing design team leaders.
The Bloomberg report says its inside sources says Cook wants to expose Ternus to a growing number of departments in the company, as he prepares him to take over the reigns when Cook steps down. While Ternus is taking on more responsibility, software engineering chief Craig Federighi and marketing chief Greg Joswiak continue to have a say in Apple’s overall aesthetic.
Ternus has long been considered the top candidate to take on the HMFIC role at Apple when current CEO Cook retires. However, that likely won’t happen any time soon, as even though Cook turned 65 last year, he doesn’t appear to be ready to step down in the near future. Meanwhile, unless Ternus totally screws up he should have a long reign when he takes over Cook’s throne, as he is Apple’s youngest senior executive at just 50 years old.
