Tim Cook’s departure is the start of a new era at Apple | The Verge
Overview
Tech Expand Amazon Apple Facebook Google Microsoft Samsung Business See all tech
Reviews Expand Smart Home Reviews Phone Reviews Tablet Reviews Headphone Reviews See all reviews
Details
Science Expand Space Energy Environment Health See all science
Entertainment Expand TV Shows Movies Audio See all entertainment
Policy Expand Antitrust Politics Law Security See all policy
Gadgets Expand Laptops Phones TVs Headphones Speakers Wearables See all gadgets
Verge Shopping Expand Buying Guides Deals Gift Guides See all shopping
Streaming Expand Disney HBONetflix You Tube Creators See all streaming
Transportation Expand Electric Cars Autonomous Cars Ride-sharing Scooters See all transportation
Tech Close Tech Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Tech
Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Report Close Report Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Report
Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Apple Close Apple Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Apple
Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Tim Cook’s departure is the start of a new era at Apple
Tim Cook, a close friend of Jobs, is stepping down in September, leaving behind a team of executives bridging the gap between two eras.
Tim Cook, a close friend of Jobs, is stepping down in September, leaving behind a team of executives bridging the gap between two eras.
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Apple is about to become a very different company. This September, Apple CEO Tim Cook is stepping down and will be replaced by John Ternus, the current head of hardware. But the shift is bigger than just a CEO transition — it’s the most significant move yet into a world where Apple’s executive team isn’t handpicked by Steve Jobs.
With the departure of Cook, who became CEO in 2011, the list of leaders who were in Jobs’ inner circle is dwindling. There’s still Apple’s senior vice president of services, Eddy Cue, who joined in 1989, and has said that Jobs was like a “family member” to him. There’s also longtime marketing exec Phil Schiller, who worked with Jobs to launch key products, including the Mac, i Pod, i Phone, and i Pad, and often appeared with Jobs during keynotes. Schiller stepped into a smaller role in 2020, though he still oversees one major business, the App Store.
Other top holdovers include Greg Joswiak and Craig Federighi. Joswiak started at Apple in 1986 and worked under Jobs for years, playing a role in launching the original i Pod and i Phone. He later took Schiller’s spot as the head of marketing in 2020. Federighi, Apple’s software head, also had close ties to Jobs. He worked at Jobs’ technology company Ne XT before it was acquired by Apple in 1996. Though Federighi left shortly after the acquisition, he rejoined Apple in 2009.
But many key Jobs-era figures at Apple are gone. i OS leader Scott Forstall, who was once seen as a potential successor to Jobs, was pushed out a year into Cook’s tenure over the botched launch of Apple Maps.
Bob Mansfield, a key part of Jobs’ executive team, finally stepped away after years of Cook pulling him back. He joined Apple through an acquisition in 1999 and later headed up the Mac’s transition to Intel processors. Mansfield nearly retired in 2012 but decided to stick around to work on the Apple Watch and later the (since abandoned) Apple Car project. Mansfield finally retired in 2020.
Cook had a similar experience with Doug Field, who Jobs hired from Segway to head up Mac product design (even though Jobs thought the Segway’s design was bad). Field left Apple for Tesla in 2013, rejoined Apple in 2018, and then went to Ford in 2021 (a role he left last week).
Vision Pro leader Dan Riccio, who Bloomberg described as a “key player” under Jobs for his work on hardware engineering, retired in 2024. Last year, Apple lost another old guard executive, former chief operating officer Jeff Williams, who helped bring to life Jobs’ idea of putting a glass screen on the original i Phone.
Perhaps the most notable departure in recent years was that of Jony Ive, the legendary Apple designer who called Jobs his “closest” and “most loyal friend.” He left Apple in 2019 after having stepped back for periods of time in the preceding years.
That’s not to say there’s no connection to the Jobs era in this new leadership team.
Ternus bridges the gap between Jobs and Cook. He joined Apple in 2001 and rose to vice president of hardware engineering under Cook in 2013, overseeing the launch of post-Jobs products like the Air Pods and the i Phone Air. Apple’s newly appointed chief hardware officer, Johny Srouji, is in a similar position. He joined Apple to work on the A4 chip in 2008 and went on to launch the company’s first in-house Mac chip in 2020. Sabih Khan, who initially joined Apple in 1995, stepped into the role of chief operating officer last year.
Still, as one would expect after 15 years, Apple’s next leadership team is very much the team created by Cook. In many respects, he kept around the Jobs-era crew for a remarkably long time. There remain people on Apple’s leadership team who were there when the company wasn’t the behemoth it is today. But that era of executives is very much winding down.
It’s now up to these new leaders to leave their own stamp on Apple. During his tenure, Cook and his team have transformed Apple into a $4 trillion company. With Cook handing Ternus the reins to one of the biggest technology companies in the world, he’ll have some major decisions to make about where to take Apple next.
Emma Roth Close Emma Roth News Writer Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All by Emma Roth
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Apple Close Apple Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Apple
Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Report Close Report Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Report
Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Tech Close Tech Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Tech
Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
More in: John Ternus is taking over from Tim Cook as Apple’s CEO
Anthropic’s most dangerous AI model just fell into the wrong hands
Sony’s Play Station 5 is $200 off for the first time since December
Elon Musk admits that millions of Tesla vehicles won’t get unsupervised FSD
I bought Alienware’s $350 OLED monitor and I can’t believe how good it is
Key Takeaways
- Tech Expand Amazon Apple Facebook Google Microsoft Samsung Business See all tech
- Reviews Expand Smart Home Reviews Phone Reviews Tablet Reviews Headphone Reviews See all reviews
- Science Expand Space Energy Environment Health See all science
- Entertainment Expand TV Shows Movies Audio See all entertainment
- Policy Expand Antitrust Politics Law Security See all policy
