Tim Cook’s departure marks the beginning of a new era at Apple

Apple is about to become a completely different company. Next September, Apple CEO Tim Cook will step down and will be replaced by John Ternos, the current head of hardware. But this shift is bigger than just a CEO transition — it’s the most significant move yet in a world where Apple’s executive team isn’t hand-picked by Steve Jobs.

With the departure of Cook, who became CEO in 2011, the list of leaders in Jobs’ inner circle has dwindled. There is still Apple’s senior vice president of services, Eddy Cue, who joined in 1989, and He said Jobs was like a “family member.” for him. There’s also long-time marketing executive Phil Schiller, who… I worked with jobs For major product launches, including the Mac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad, he often appeared with Jobs during keynotes. Schiller took on a smaller role in 2020, though he still oversees one of its core businesses, the App Store.

Other top keepers include Greg Joswiak and Craig Federighi. Joswiak started at Apple in 1986 and worked under Jobs for years, playing a role in the launch of the original iPod and iPhone. He later took over from Schiller as chief marketing officer in 2020. Federighi, Apple’s software chief, also had close ties to Jobs. He worked at Jobs’ technology company NeXT before it was acquired by Apple in 1996. Although Federighi left shortly after the acquisition, he returned to Apple in 2009.

But many of the key figures of Apple’s Jobs era are gone. iOS leader Scott Forstall, who was once seen as Possible successor to Jobswas postponed a year from Cook’s year-round tenure Failed launch of Apple Maps.

Finally, Bob Mansfield, who was a key part of Jobs’ executive team, resigned years after Cook pulled him out. He joined Apple through an acquisition in 1999, and later led the Mac’s transition to Intel processors. Mansfield almost retired in 2012 But he decided to continue working on Apple Watch and later Apple Car Project (since abandoned).. Mansfield finally retired in 2020.

Cook had a similar experience with Doug Field, whom Jobs hired from Segway to head Mac product design (although Jobs I thought the Segway was poorly designed). Left Apple’s field Tesla in 2013join again Apple in 2018and then He went to Ford in 2021 (Dur is He left last week).

Vision Pro leader Dan Riccio, who Bloomberg He is described as a “key player” under Jobs For his work in hardware engineering, he retired in 2024. Last year, Apple lost another old guard executive, former COO Jeff Williams, who helped revive Jobs’ idea of ​​putting a glass screen on the original iPhone.

Perhaps the most notable departure in recent years was the departure of Jony Ive, the legendary Apple designer Who described Jobs as his “closest friend” and “most loyal.”He left Apple in 2019 after declining for periods of time in previous years.

That’s not to say there isn’t any connection to the Jobs era in this new leadership team.

Ternus bridges the gap between Jobs and Cook. He joined Apple in 2001 and rose to vice president of hardware engineering under Cook in 2013, where he oversaw the launch of Post-functional products like AirPods and iPhone Air. Apple Newly appointed Chief Device OfficerJohnny Srouji is in a similar situation. He joined Apple to work on the A4 chip in 2008 and went on to launch the company’s first in-house Mac chip in 2020. Subih Khan, who initially joined Apple in 1995, took over as chief operating officer last year.

However, as expected 15 years later, Apple’s next leadership team is largely the one Cook created. In many respects, he has been around the Jobs-era staff for a remarkably long time. There are still people on Apple’s leadership team who were there when the company wasn’t the giant it is today. But that era of CEOs is getting closer.

It’s now up to these new leaders to make their own mark on Apple. During his tenure, Cook and his team turned Apple into a corporation A $4 trillion company. As Cook hands Ternus the reins of one of the world’s largest technology companies, he will have some major decisions to make about where Apple goes next.