Apple CEO John Ternus is reportedly spending far more time in the design studio than Tim Cook ever did. He’s there several times a week, sometimes more than once a day.
It’s clearly different from the Tim Cook era. Many people think design influence at Apple slipped since Jony Ive left the company back in 2019, but Ternus seems determined to fix that.
Apple CEO John Ternus takes a hands-on approach
John Ternus has spent virtually his entire career at Apple, joining the company’s product design team in 2001. He rose through the ranks until he reached senior vice president of Hardware Engineering in 2021.
That makes Ternus an unusually product-focused CEO: before taking the top job, he spent years directly overseeing the engineers responsible for building Apple’s hardware. And that’s shaping how he runs the company since taking over as Apple CEO on September 1
In his Sunday Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman claimed Ternus has immersed himself in the industrial design and human interface teams.
Tim Cook, Apple’s previous CEO, by contrast, used to reportedly visit “about an hour once a month, at most.”
Ternus was already familiar with the space from his years running hardware engineering. Apparently, now he’s treating it like a second office.
Ternus is reportedly able to do that because other executives are handling Cook’s old turf. CFO Kevin Parekh is handling finances, while COO Sabih Khan is overseeing the supply chain. That means Ternus could be free to focus on engineering and design.
Gurman says Ternus told employees he has to lead himself instead of copying Cook. Cook had spent his tenure working where he could add the most value. Ternus could be wanting to do the same, but in different places.
Apple’s design leadership has been in flux
Apple hasn’t had a true design chief since Jony Ive’s exit in 2019. Industrial design and human interface teams each had their own leaders, and they answered to former COO Jeff Williams, who retired back in 2025.
Apple then announced the teams would report to Cook. Ternus had reportedly taken over the responsibility ahead of the handoff, according to Gurman.
And keeping the teams staffed hasn’t been easy at all. Alan Dye, who led interface design, has left for Meta. OpenAI has also hired away a number of Apple designers.
Apple isn’t hunting for a chief design officer
One might expect Apple to hire a Jony Ive replacement, but Gurman says no such search is underway.
Instead, Apple seems to be leaning on the people it already has. Molly Anderson is leading the industrial design, while Steve Lemay heads human interface design. Both made their appearance during the iPhone Duo presentation, putting them front and center.
Apple has also promoted junior designers and hired new people, per the report. But Ternus remains the final decision-maker on design. And while he has no formal design background, he could be betting his involvement will matter.
For Apple fans missing the days of bold hardware, that’s welcome news. The next product launches might show how far Ternus’ influence goes.
Anurag Chawake is a tech-focused writer specializing in smartphones, apps and consumer technology. His interest in computers began during the Windows 98 era, eventually leading him to explore everything from operating systems to mobile devices and PC hardware. Anurag previously contributed to The Indian Express, covering Apple, Android, gaming and the broader technology landscape.
