John Ternus was born in May 1975 in the United States. Ternus was awarded a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997, where he was also named as a letterwinner at the university’s swim team. After graduating, Ternus went on to work as a mechanical engineer at Virtual Research Systems from July 1997 to June 2001.
In July 2001, Ternus departed his previous role to join Apple’s Product Design team. Ternus made his way up the company’s corporate leadership as he was named a Vice President of Hardware Engineering in 2013, leading hardware development of key products like the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The guidance and leadership of Ternus has been instrumental for several Apple devices as he led work on every iPad and AirPods model the company has released.
In 2020, Ternus expanded his development leadership to the iPhone as he directly led work on the iPhone 12 lineup and every iPhone generation since. The work of Ternus was rewarded once again in 2021 when he was named as Apple’s Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, succeeding Dan Riccio. With this step, Ternus now oversees the engineering and development of almost all of Apple’s hardware products, reporting directly to Tim Cook.
The work of Ternus isn’t limited to Apple products but also extends to the company’s hardware technologies. The efforts of Ternus and his teams significantly contributed to Mac’s transition to Apple silicon with the M1 chip in 2021. Ternus has become a regular appearance at many of Apple’s events, leading the stage to unveil many of Apple’s recent Mac and iPad models and the newest Apple silicon chips.
Within Apple, Ternus is described as a “mild-mannered” leader and decision-maker, which is evident as the 49-year-old is one of the youngest SVPs the company has named in recent memory. Thanks to his leadership style and hands-on approach, many within the company believe Ternus is being readied to take on the CEO role as soon as Tim Cook retires, which could happen before the turn of this decade.