Apple CEO John Ternus is reportedly acting as the company’s design chief. Apple has not had a single leader over both industrial design and software design since Jony Ive left in 2019, and Ternus is now filling that gap himself.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports in his Power On newsletter that Ternus works hands-on in the design studio several times a week, sometimes visiting more than once in a single day. Gurman adds that Apple is not searching for an outside chief design officer, even though many people inside and close to the company believed it should hire one.
Ternus Leaves Finance and Supply Chain to Others and Spends His Time on Hardware and Design
Ternus rose through Apple as a hardware engineer, and Gurman says he is setting markedly different priorities from Tim Cook. Financial operations go to Chief Financial Officer Kevan Parekh, and the supply chain goes to Chief Operating Officer Sabih Khan. Ternus spends his own time on product engineering with Chief Hardware Officer Johny Srouji and hardware engineering leader Tom Marieb, plus the design studio.
Cook focused on operations, sales, financial strategy and the supply chain, and he also handled public policy, privacy and Apple’s relationships with governments. Designers say he typically visited the studio for about an hour once a month at most. Ternus also plans year-round launches and fewer layers of management.
Ternus has told employees about an early succession conversation in which he questioned whether he was up to the job. Cook, in his usual deadpan tone, replied “I know you’re not me.” Ternus took that to mean he should spend his time where he can add the most value for Apple. Cook has called Ternus the perfect person to lead Apple.
Apple Has Lacked a Single Design Leader Since Jony Ive Left in 2019
After Ive’s departure, industrial design and human interface design each had their own leader. Both groups ultimately reported to former Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams, a manufacturing expert with no design background who was chosen largely because of his close relationship with Cook.
Williams retired last year, and Cook said in a press release that the design teams would report directly to him, which was true on paper. In practice, the design teams began answering to Ternus instead. Cook gave him responsibility for design as part of the transition to CEO, and between April and September Apple’s design leaders were effectively Ternus’s only direct reports.
The Design Studio Lost Senior Talent and Ternus Is Rebuilding It
Restoring the studio’s standing inside Apple was one of Ternus’s first priorities. The group had lost many employees to LoveFrom, Ive’s firm, as well as to OpenAI’s hardware team and other companies. Apple had to promote junior designers and hire heavily from outside to refill the ranks.
Here is how the top design roles have changed:
- Jony Ive (left in 2019): no single successor, with separate industrial design and human interface leaders
- Alan Dye (software design): left for Meta Platforms and was succeeded by Steve Lemay
- Evans Hankey (industrial design): left and eventually joined OpenAI, and was succeeded by Molly Anderson
Anderson had never managed a team at Apple’s scale before becoming vice president of industrial design in 2024. Many of the group’s most senior members had already left by then, which left her as the only realistic internal candidate, Gurman says.
Apple pushed Anderson and Lemay as its design leaders during the iPhone Duo launch. Ternus posed with Anderson and the phone, and Anderson and Lemay helped introduce the device in a joint video. The pair also explained how the iPhone Duo was designed in a recent interview. Apple is also rebuilding its industrial design team, and this past week it hired Belgian furniture designer Julien Renault.
