Apple’s new CEO Ternus faces pressure to remake Jobs-era leadership team

John Ternus officially becomes Apple's ↗ 1.63% chief executive on Tuesday, September 1, inheriting a leadership bench that Tim Cook left largely unchanged from the Steve Jobs era — and a looming question about how long that team can hold.

In his Sunday Power On newsletter for Bloomberg, Mark Gurman wrote that one of Ternus's most pressing challenges will be "a need to soon revamp a management team that has steered its corporate culture for decades." Apple's heads of retail, marketing, and services have each spent roughly four decades at the company, and Gurman walked through who is likely to replace them in the coming years as Ternus begins reshaping the executive table.iphoneincanada+1

Cook's Untouched Bench

When Cook took over from Jobs in August 2011, he kept the vast majority of the co-founder's senior leaders in place. Hardware chief Bob Mansfield tried to retire in 2012 but was persuaded to stay in various roles until around 2020, and Jony Ive remained in a full-time design seat for years after the handoff. Cook's consensus-driven style meant the room he walked into was never torn up — which is why, Gurman argues, the shake-up now falls to Ternus.cryptobriefing+1

Ternus has already signaled urgency. Reports from mid-2026 indicate he restructured Apple's industrial design organization before formally taking the role, bringing back Laura Legros, a former vice president of hardware, from retirement. Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported he overhauled the hardware engineering group around a new AI-driven platform intended to accelerate product development.9to5mac+1

A High-Stakes Debut

Ternus, a 25-year Apple veteran who joined in 2001 with a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Pennsylvania, rose through the hardware ranks to senior vice president in 2021. The board unanimously approved the succession plan when it was announced in April.finance.yahoo+1

He steps into the job just days before Apple's September 9 launch event, where the company is expected to unveil its first foldable iPhone alongside the iPhone 18 Pro lineup — a product Ternus helped engineer. Apple enters the transition near record territory, with its market capitalization approaching $4.6 trillion, more than 30 percent above its level a year ago.reuters+2

Cook, who added roughly $3.6 trillion to Apple's market value during his 15-year tenure, moves into the role of executive chairman. His continued presence on the board could provide continuity — or, as some observers note, create an awkward dual center of gravity as Ternus works to make the company his own.cryptobriefing