John Ternus officially became CEO of Apple today, while Tim Cook steps into the new role of executive chairman. Ternus sent his first note as CEO to employees this morning, congratulating Cook and sharing his enthusiasm for Apple’s future.
Woozad obtained a copy of the memo, which you can read in full below.
Team,
Today, on my first day as CEO, I just wanted to send a quick message to thank everyone for your warm wishes. I also want to express my deep gratitude to Tim for sharing much of his knowledge and experience during this transition and, more importantly, for everything he has brought to Apple over the years. We are so lucky to have had a CEO who led with his values and with such decency and humanity. We are all better for it, and I am very grateful that he is our executive chairman.
I’m honored to step into this role at what is truly the greatest company in the world, and I’m very excited about everything we have in store. We have a huge launch next week that is going to be phenomenal. Thank you for everything you have done to make this possible.
I’m just as excited about what lies beyond, including the incredible products already in the works and those we haven’t even imagined yet that we will imagine and create together. There is no team in the world I would rather build the future with.
More to come. In the meantime, thank you for your excellent work!
John
Ternus is a longtime Apple employee, having first joined the company in 2001. Before becoming CEO, he was senior vice president of hardware engineering, so he has a product-focused background instead of Cook’s operational background. Apple’s management team reorganized during the transition from Cook to Ternus, and the full effect of the changes will be felt over the next few years.
Johny Srouji is now Apple’s chief hardware officer, taking over the hardware engineering team previously led by Ternus. Former VP of Engineering and Ternus lieutenant Laura Legros is returning to Apple and the product design team has been restructured.
On his last day as CEO, Cook told his employees that he was “extremely heartened” to hand over leadership of Apple to “someone as brilliant and wonderful and capable as John.”
Ternus has been on stage at Apple events before, but the September 9 “Surprise and Shine” iPhone event will be his first as Apple CEO.
