As Key Talent Abandons Apple, Meet the New Generation of Leaders Taking On the Old Guard

Start the music. Players locomotion clockwise successful a circle. When the euphony stops, everyone sits successful a chair. Big Tech is mounting successful question its plans for the adjacent gen of pb designers, engineers, AI chiefs, and adjacent CEOs.

In Cupertino, Apple execs with acquainted faces are retiring oregon reducing responsibilities. Who’s successful and who’s out? Well, main operating serviceman Jeff Williams retired successful November, and the speculation is that CEO Tim Cook could travel successful the adjacent term. Lisa Jackson, who has led Apple’s sustainability efforts since 2013, is present acceptable to discontinue successful January too.

There’s besides the squad of Apple staffers who person been lured distant to enactment with OpenAI, notably Apple’s erstwhile main plan serviceman Jony Ive aft his autarkic stint astatine LoveFrom. In 2024, Molly Anderson was named concern plan leader, heading up a squad of mostly caller faces. Others person gone to Meta, specified arsenic Apple’s VP of quality interface design, Alan Dye, who conscionable this week was poached to caput up a caller Reality Labs plan studio. At Apple, he’s been replaced by long-time UI decorator Stephen Lemay. Phew.

In this swirl of shifting talent, John Ternus, who has worked for Apple since 2001, and served arsenic SVP of hardware engineering for the past 4 years, reporting straight to Tim Cook, is emerging arsenic the frontrunner to win Cook arsenic Apple CEO, reportedly arsenic soon arsenic adjacent year. WIRED asked Apple for remark but didn’t perceive backmost earlier publication.

Alongside a dependable drip of “leaks” connected succession readying and Ternus’ presumption astatine the beforehand of the pack, since 2023, Ternus has been fixed much prominence astatine merchandise motorboat events. He announced the iPhone Air onstage this past September, and has appeared alongside different elder Apple leaders successful property interviews and in-store Apple events.

“I deliberation they're investigating to spot what sentiment is like. Apple likes to power the narrative. So these ‘leaks,’ they’re not happening unintentionally,” suggests Anshel Sag, main expert astatine Moor Insights & Strategy. “Apple’s mislaid a batch of people. I deliberation it mightiness really beryllium a nett affirmative due to the fact that it volition make a caller harvest of radical that person much powerfulness present than they did before.”

New Names to Know

It’s ever tricky to prime up an individual’s contributions astatine Apple, beyond the unusual detail, specified arsenic John Ternus himself reportedly being down the MacBook’s TouchBar. Bertrand Nepveu worked successful the Apple Vision Pro squad from 2017 to 2021, aft Apple acquired his VR headset startup Vrvana, and present runs Montreal-based VC steadfast Triptyq Capital. During his 3 and a fractional years, mostly moving connected the Vision Pro’s pass-through capabilities, the squad ballooned from 300 to astir 1,200. “John Ternus, adjacent though I ne'er worked with him, the feedback I got is that he’s a large merchandise person,” helium says, “and I deliberation that's what is needed for the adjacent signifier of Apple, particularly with AI and with XR.”

With this aboriginal successful mind, Nepveu sees the operation of Ternus-as-CEO moving good with different unit moves astatine Apple, including the quality successful March that Rockwell was taking implicit improvement of Siri from the caput of AI, John Giannandrea. In different large future-facing reshuffle, Giannandrea was replaced this week by Amar Subramanya, who spent 16 years astatine Google, including enactment connected Gemini and DeepMind, earlier a six-month stint astatine Microsoft.

“Mike Rockwell, I worked with him successful the Vision Pro group, I deliberation he’s the close idiosyncratic for that due to the fact that they [XR and AI] enactment successful tandem,” says Nepveu. “He utilized to gag that Siri was crap. I liked him due to the fact that helium didn't portion the Kool-Aid. I was blessed erstwhile I saw that helium got promoted. I deliberation successful tandem with idiosyncratic who is much product-focused [Ternus], it's the mode to spell for Apple.”