GoKawiilApple announced Monday that Tim Cook will step down as CEO later this year, with John Ternus set to take over on September 1. Ternus has been at Apple for over 25 years and has played a pivotal role in every Apple product category since joining.
Here’s everything you need to know about Apple’s next CEO, widely described as a “super nice guy” with an engineering and product background.
John Ternus is Apple’s next CEO
Education
Ternus attended the University of Pennsylvania from 1993 to 1997, where he received a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, plus a minor in Psychology.
During his time at Penn, Ternus was an award-winning member of the school’s swim team. He earned a varsity letter his freshman year and was a member of the team all four years he was at Penn. “Ternus was a very good guy,” according to a former teammate quoted by The Wall Street Journal.
Ternus went back to his Penn stomping grounds in 2024 to deliver the commencement address to the Penn Engineering Class of 2024. During that address, Ternus revealed how he got his college nickname of “Crash” his senior year of college:
“I really appreciate you inviting me back to campus after I nearly destroyed Penn’s first, and at the time only, CNC milling machine my senior year. I won’t get into the whole story here, but let’s just say it was dramatic. They called me ‘Crash’ for the rest of that year.”
According to The New York Times, Ternus’s senior project at Penn was a device that allowed quadriplegics to control a mechanical feeding arm using head movements.
Ternus’s career path
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