The Mac Mini was sorely in need of an update, and John Ternus hoped he didn’t need to go through design guru Jony Ive.
Years ago, before Ternus was tapped to take the helm of one of the world’s biggest and most influential companies, he led Apple’s Mac hardware division. It was one of many stops as he rose through the ranks of the insular company and learned to navigate its curious internal politics.
The AI revolution that would make the Mac Mini hugely popular was still years away, yet software developers needed a new version with updated chips. A new enclosure for the Mini could require work by Ive’s industrial design department that could lead to delays.
Ternus ordered the update after determining that the design wouldn’t need a major change, people familiar with the move said. He didn’t dwell on the product’s profit potential, focusing instead on its value to Apple’s overall ecosystem. It was one of many episodes that showed his decisiveness, keen understanding of Apple’s culture and products, and how to get things done inside the company, the people said.
Over his 25 year career at Apple, those characteristics have propelled Ternus all the way to the company’s top job, which he will take over Sept. 1, the company announced Monday, instantly making him one of the highest-profile corporate leaders in the world. Longtime Apple CEO Tim Cook will become executive chairman.
Ternus will follow two corporate legends. Steve Jobs developed the most lucrative product in history, the iPhone. Cook squeezed trillions of dollars of value from the smartphone thanks to the supply chain he built and the services and ancillary products he rolled out.
As Cook did when he succeeded Jobs, Ternus is taking over as a relative unknown to the outside world. If Jobs was a product visionary and Cook a supply chain guru, Ternus is a hardware savant who exists somewhere in the middle.
A mechanical engineer by background, who most recently has led hardware engineering for all of Apple’s products, Ternus takes Apple’s reins at a critical time in its history . The company is at the top of its game selling iPhones, after rolling out popular new models last fall. Yet it is struggling to find its next hit product.
It also must remake itself in the age of artificial intelligence. After decades defining how people interact with computing devices, first on their desktops and then in their hands, Apple has fallen behind rival companies who are leading the next great computing platform with chatbots that converse like humans. Apple’s own Siri, which is set to get an AI brain transplant this year, has been a Neanderthal by comparison.
Ask anyone from Apple what they think of Ternus, and they all say the same thing: He’s a super nice guy. People who have worked with Ternus describe him as a great collaborator who inspires fierce loyalty among those who work for him, a levelheaded voice who has made few if any enemies inside a company that in the past was notorious for its noxious personalities.
Staffers describe his ability to get things done in meetings, which he keeps focused, as well as his preference to deal directly with lower level staffers more familiar with products, rather than their managers who have less specific knowledge.
Outside Apple, Ternus loves to race his Porsche at tracks like California’s Laguna Seca raceway, where he clocks laps in under 1:40, people familiar with his times said, which they added was solid for an amateur driver.
Ternus is tall and thin, with the same build he carried when he was a swimmer in college at the University of Pennsylvania. “Ternus was a very good guy,” said his one-time teammate, Andrew Berkowitz, who recalled the team running down Locust Walk on campus in their speedos in the winter, an annual hazing ritual for freshmen.
He graduated in 1997 and joined Apple in 2001 after four years working at a virtual-reality startup.
A decade ago, Ternus was among the top executives charged with developing AirPods. Now a must-have iPhone accessory, the development of the first generation was infamous inside Apple for infighting among Ternus’s peers as they argued over how to keep the wireless ear buds connected via Bluetooth. One peer was later forced out, another sent to China. Ternus, not yet 40, stayed above the fray.
One of the biggest successes on Ternus’s watch has been the redesign of Apple’s Mac computers to use the company’s own chips , which run faster and cooler than the Intel chips Apple previously used. Most credit for that change goes to Johny Srouji , Apple’s hardware technologies leader who is taking over and expanding Ternus’s present job leading hardware engineering.
Ternus’s diplomatic skills and long Apple history will be essential in the new role. Apple has a unique structure. Other large companies have general managers responsible for discrete business lines. Apple is organized by function so an insider CEO with knowledge of the various parts of the company is at an advantage.
What he isn’t known for is taking big, risky swings, said people familiar with Ternus’s tenure, leaving open the question of whether he can provide the product vision that company critics say has been absent since Jobs died.
Ternus is already a keeper of the company’s cultural flame. He has led talks to energize employees, reminding them never to speak of the company’s forthcoming products, a nod to the company’s secrecy dogma preached by Jobs.
For months, Ternus has been seen as Cook’s likely successor, a testament to Apple’s efforts to engineer a smooth succession unlike the chaotic transitions that have played out in recent years at other storied American companies.
Apple has taken steps recently to raise his profile. When Apple lifted the curtain on its 2025 device lineup, it was Ternus who showed off the new iPhone Air model. Soon after the device showcase, he was dispatched to London to welcome customers at Apple’s flagship U.K. store on the first day of new iPhone sales. He also introduced the company’s newest product, the cheap MacBook Neo laptop, last month.
Apple celebrated its 50th birthday at Grand Central Station in New York City a few weeks ago. Two executives headlined it: Cook and Ternus.
Write to Rolfe Winkler at Rolfe.Winkler@wsj.com
