How to stop Siri AI from keeping your conversations forever
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Appleβs former hardware engineering chief John Ternus officially became CEO of the company today, with the change now reflected on Appleβs leadership page.
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Tim Cook is now executive chairman of Appleβs board of directors, after a 15-year run as CEO.
John joined Appleβs product design team in 2001 and became a vice president of Hardware Engineering in 2013. He joined the executive team in 2021 as senior vice president of Hardware Engineering. Throughout his tenure at Apple, John has overseen hardware engineering work on a variety of groundbreaking products and was instrumental in the introduction of multiple new product lines, including iPad and AirPods, as well as many generations of products across iPhone, Mac, and Apple Watch.
John has led much of the companyβs focus in areas like reliability and durability, introducing new techniques that have made Apple products remarkably resilient. He has also driven much of Appleβs innovation in materials and hardware design that have reduced the carbon footprint of its products, including the creation of a new recycled aluminum compound that has been introduced across multiple product lines, the use of 3D-printed titanium in Apple Watch Ultra, and advancements in reparability that have increased the life spans of several Apple products.
Prior to Apple, John worked as a mechanical engineer at Virtual Research Systems. He holds a bachelorβs degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
This feels like Apple really trying to remind us of a previous product-focused CEO.
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I would not have predicted this [reliability and durability] angle being so prominent, so I can only assume itβs something thatβs important to Ternus.
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One of the key tenets of the Cook era was Apple making a series of environmental pledges. I am very happy to see this called out as something Ternus is interested in.
Thereβs no mention of software.
Ternus sent his first memo as CEO to employees this morning, praising Cook and sharing his excitement for Appleβs future.
The 5 GB free iCloud tier lasted Tim Cookβs entire career as CEO, how will Ternus stack up?
Previously:
Update (2026-09-02): Juli Clover:
Apple has set new CEO John Ternusβ target compensation at $58 million, according to an updated SEC filing [PDF]. Tim Cookβs target compensation is $47 million in his new role as executive chairman.
Update (2026-09-07): Ryan Christoffel:
But a new profile published today at the Financial Times adds fresh details and insights to the story.
Regarding Ternusβs reputation inside Apple, it says he βis known within the company for being both highly competent and unshowy.β
It doesnβt seem like there was actually much insight, but Iβm linking to this for completeness.
Previously: