Person of Interest: Meet Apple’s New Man-of-Mystery CEO

The business world produces some, let’s say, interesting characters. Earlier this month, we told you about 24-year-old Rubik’s-Cube-enthusiast Leopold Aschenbrenner, who vapourized US$35 billion with leveraged AI bets. This week let’s meet someone who’s far more discreet but more consequential: John Ternus, the incoming CEO of Apple. He’s a hardware guy who worked his way up the tech giant’s ladder over 25 years, and he’s got some even taller challenges ahead when he ascends to the No. 1 job on Sept. 1.

At the top of the list: Apple hasn’t delivered a new world-upending product on par with the iPod or iPhone in many years. Ternus’s mandate is to fix that, fast, while preserving that classic Apple slickness on a company that just turned a dad-bod 50. Is he up to the job? Hard to say! He keeps an almost comically low profile, so we dug up every detail we could find about him to get a sense of what the future might hold. Here’s what we definitely (probably) know:

He’s from California. Orange County, specifically.

He’s definitely Gen X. When Apple announced him as its next CEO, nobody could figure out how old he was … until it was revealed, in an April regulatory filing, that he was born in May 1975. Which makes him 51.

He might be married. Ternus once wore a wedding band during a presentation; beyond that, there’s no public information about his family (assuming the ring wasn’t a ploy to make us think he has a family). 

He likes making cars go vroom. Sounds like Ternus might be married … to his Porsche, which he rally-races on California’s Laguna Seca racing circuit. He reportedly drives a 1:40 lap, which ain’t too bad for an amateur.

He’s a “man of the people.” One former boss noted that Ternus has declined a private office since the mid-2000s, choosing instead to sit with his team in a shared space. He’s also known for working directly with engineers on products, rather than delegating through middle managers. Getting in the weeds helped him notch a long list of wins, including the iPhone Air, the iPad, AirPods, and Apple Watches. 

He beefed with Jony Ive. Ternus famously fought for (and achieved!) better product performance after standards slipped in the 2010s, when Apple’s obsession with thinness resulted in slow-running gear. (Ternus is said to have gone tête-à-tête with famed designer Ive, the man behind Apple’s minimalism, more than a few times.) 

He might not differ all that much from Tim Cook. Outgoing CEO Cook is a shrewd businessman who built a world-class supply chain, but he lacked a twinkle-in-the-eye innovative streak à la Steve Jobs. Ternus, similarly, is known more as a shepherd of other people’s ideas than an innovator. But, hey, he hasn’t even started yet! Let’s give the guy a chance.

Written By

Jenna Benchetrit

Jenna Benchetrit is the senior business & markets reporter at TLDR, Wealthsimple Media's flagship financial newsletter. She was formerly a senior business writer at CBC News, where she covered economics and consumer issues for a Canadian audience.