With hardware chief John Ternus emerging as a front-runner for CEO, the question on everyone’s mind is whether Apple can outpace its former employees at OpenAI and Meta.
Big Tech is quietly orchestrating its next generation of lead designers, engineers, AI heads, and potential CEOs. In Cupertino, familiar faces are stepping back or reducing responsibilities, and the balance of power is shifting.
Chief operating officer Jeff Williams retired in November, and speculation about CEO Tim Cook’s future persists. Lisa Jackson, who has led Apple’s sustainability efforts since 2013, is set to retire in January.
Several high-profile departures have reshaped Apple’s design and AI teams. Former chief design officer Jony Ive left Apple for OpenAI after running his independent studio LoveFrom. Alan Dye, Apple’s VP of human interface design, has moved to Meta to lead a new Reality Labs design studio. Stephen Lemay, a longtime Apple UI designer, has taken over Dye’s role.
Meanwhile, Molly Anderson, named Apple’s industrial design lead in 2024, has been heading a team of mostly fresh faces and gaining more visibility at Apple events. Alongside her, experienced hands like Richard Howarth remain, maintaining continuity in industrial design as Apple navigates this transition.
Is John Ternus the Next CEO?
John Ternus, at Apple since 2001 and SVP of hardware engineering for the last four years, reporting directly to Tim Cook, is emerging as the front-runner to succeed Cook, potentially as soon as next year. Since 2023, Ternus has taken on a more prominent public profile, appearing at product launches and media events. He announced the iPhone Air onstage this past September and has appeared alongside senior leaders at press and in-store events.
“I think they’re testing to see what sentiment is like. Apple likes to control the narrative. So these ‘leaks,’ they’re not happening unintentionally,” says Anshel Sag, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. “Apple’s lost a lot of people. I think it might actually be a net positive because it will create a fresh crop of people that have more power now than they did before.”
Ternus is known internally as a strong product-focused leader. Bertrand Nepveu, who worked on Apple Vision Pro before founding Triptyq Capital, adds, “John Ternus, even though I never worked with him, the feedback I got is that he’s a great product person, and I think that’s what is needed for the next phase of Apple, especially with AI and with XR.”
Nepveu also notes that Ternus’ rise pairs well with other personnel moves, including Mike Rockwell taking over Siri from John Giannandrea, now replaced by Amar Subramanya from Google. “Mike Rockwell, I worked with him in the Vision Pro group, I think he’s the right person for that because they [XR and AI] work in tandem,” Nepveu says.
Hardware and XR Leadership
Fletcher Rothkopf, recently promoted to VP of hardware engineering, now oversees much of Apple’s upcoming glasses hardware. Nepveu says Rothkopf’s role is critical, connecting industrial design to hardware and ensuring devices like the Vision Pro remain comfortable and usable. Rothkopf, Rockwell, and Peter Meier, who left Apple in 2019, were considered the “three amigos” during Vision Pro development.
These hardware moves reflect a broader shift at Apple, where departures in user interface and industrial design signal a new focus on hardware and spatial computing. Dye’s successor, Stephen Lemay, has worked across Apple operating systems since 1999 and is noted for his deep technical expertise.
Chan Karunamuni, Apple human interface designer, wrote, “Steve’s been my manager for my entire 15 year career so far at Apple and I could not be more excited for this new era.” Former Apple designer Ben Hylak added, “he’s by far the best designer I have ever met or worked with in my entire life. literally taught me what design is.”
Industrial Design and Emerging Products
Molly Anderson, leading Apple’s industrial design team since 2024, has gained more visibility at events like September’s iPhone 17 Pro launch, narrating the video and wearing the iPhone Air crossbody. Anderson emphasizes structural innovation, noting, “We’ve designed it almost like a spine, radiating out … an incredibly beautiful kind of structural backbone which makes it rigid and also distributes the thermals.”
Anderson’s leadership marks a departure from the Jony Ive era. While she inherits a team partly shaped by Ive, she is forging her own identity for new categories such as smart glasses. Designers like Abidur Chowdhury, who helped develop the iPhone Air, have departed, but experienced members like Richard Howarth remain, providing continuity.
The Case for a Product-Focused CEO
Many industry observers argue that Apple now needs a “product guy” at the top. Karim Rashid, industrial designer with experience at Samsung, Sony, and Audi, observes, “Few people have such a high ‘aesthetic intelligence’ that they, down to millimeters, know something’s right or something’s wrong. Does he [John Ternus] have that innately in him? Or has he been educated well with that?”
Tom Emrich, founder of Remix Reality and former Meta manager, adds, “Ternus has been inside the company through major transitions, including the move to Apple silicon. Understanding long product cycles and what it takes to ship complex hardware at scale will matter as Apple moves deeper into spatial computing and AI-driven devices.”
Sag notes, “Operationally, Apple’s pretty much set. I even think some investors want there to be a hardware person at the helm. Because fundamentally hardware is how a lot of what Apple does gets achieved.” At age 50, Ternus strikes a balance between experience and relative youth, fitting Apple’s internal promotion culture.
The Competitive Landscape
Apple also faces competition for talent from OpenAI. Around 25 former Apple staffers, including Jony Ive, Evans Hankey, and Tang Tan, have joined OpenAI to develop AI hardware devices. Sag notes, “OpenAI have said they’re not doing glasses, but the ecosystem has told me they’re looking [at glasses]. They want to release it when it’s perfect or really, really good.”
Nepveu observes, “Creativity is messy. Now Apple needs to go back to that.” Rashid emphasizes that a singular visionary is critical: “It’s amazing how few of them have somebody specific that has a real emotional philosophy—how they connect with their consumers and take ownership of a brand.” He recalls Apple’s golden era under Steve Jobs: “Steve was calling all the shots … even picking colors. He was so hands-on because he loved design.”
Nepveu concludes, “Will we have one at Apple? We’ll see.” The coming years will test whether a new generation of leaders can combine technical mastery, design intuition, and bold innovation to carry forward Apple’s legacy.