Apple’s next CEO: speculation about the successor from Tim Cook

Apple CEO Tim Cook is about his 65th birthday. On November 1, he reaches the age when you usually retire in many countries. At the moment, no serious observer is expecting that the head of the group, which has been in office since 2011, will soon be retiring, but entire Apple management is getting older-and prominent departures such as Coo Jeff Williams, who was once considered a possible cooking successor, ensure speculation. Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman, well networked in Apple circles, gave the debate about a possible cooking successor at the weekend In his newsletter New food: He focused on hardware boss John Ternus, whose name has been circulating for a long time.

Conversion in the executive floor

Gurman once again describes how Cook has managed to keep important managers such as ex-marketing boss Phil Schiller or ex-financial chief Luca Maestri in the company. However, the Cook did not succeed in Williams, and it will actually retire at the end of the year. It remains unclear what is happening with AI boss John Giannandrea, who is always at the center of criticism (for example when it comes to Siri).

Instead of Mike Rockwell, who is considered the central figure behind the Vision Pro and is currently supposed to bring Apple’s voice assistant to shape, according to Gurman, someone could come from the outside to save Apple’s AI misery. A high manager of Metas AI department is said to be in focus. Chip boss Johny Sroouji also stands before his career ends, Gurman writes. But he had not made a decision yet. However, internal successors can be found here. The pension topic is also said to have discussed environmental chief Lisa Jackson, who has been with Apple since 2013 – she too is approaching the age limit.

Another engineer as a boss?

According to Gurman, Cook is missing a real number two after the departure of Williams. This should not be Ternus at first because he has enough to do in the hardware area-but, according to Gurman, he will remain the most important candidate for the CEO role. This includes his age at 50 – so he still had a lot of time for the group. As a technologist, Ternus is actually exactly the person that Apple now needs to make the group future -proof – production and sales still run like clockwork.

Ternus is also very popular internally and externally. According to Gurman, Cook trusts him, and he was charismatic. Most recently, Apple Ternus also had an important role in the iPhone-17 keynote. And even if the engineer, who has been working at Apple since 2001, has become CEO, Cook Apple will surely continue to receive – for example as head of the board of directors. The question now is when Apple imagines the change.