The Ternus Era Begins: Apple’s Leadership Page Gets a Massive Overhaul

It’s official. Following Tim Cook’s final parting words yesterday, Apple CEO John Ternus has taken the helm.

The company quietly updated its Apple Leadership page overnight, placing Ternus in the top spot. The changes also see the disappearance of Katherine Adams, Apple’s senior vice president of government affairs and former general counsel. Adams had already announced her retirement in December when handing responsibilities to a newly hired senior vice president, Jennifer Newstead, who had come over from a role as chief legal officer at Meta. Newstead took over as general counsel in March; as of today she adds Adams’s government affairs portfolio to the mix.

Finally, now that John Ternus has formally vacated his position as senior vice president of hardware engineering, Johny Srouji, former senior vice president of hardware technologies, officially takes on the title of chief hardware officer.

However, Apple also made another interesting change. As we’ve known since April, Tim Cook has moved to the head of the boardroom table, taking on the new role of executive chair. With that change, Apple has prettied up the board of directors section of its leadership page, not only moving Cook into the “executive chair” slot and updating former chair Arthur Levinson to “Lead Independent Director,” but it’s also added headshots to the page for the first time.

Until today, the board of directors section was merely a list of names. Cook was on that list, as the CEO sits on the board, but the only headshot was in his “CEO” slot at the top.

Now, Cook gets an entirely new headshot that makes him look more like a seasoned executive chair. We also finally get to see what the other directors actually look like, and Ternus gets the same CEO headshot repeated in the board of directors section.

Cook’s new bio doesn’t provide too much insight into what he’ll be doing as executive chair. The company’s April announcement said he’d “assist with certain aspects of the company, including engaging with policymakers around the world,” suggesting he’ll be more actively involved than Arthur Levinson was during his tenure as non-executive chair. The consensus among analysts is that Cook will continue to help Apple navigate geopolitical relationships, leaving Ternus free to focus on making great products.

Phil Schiller Fades Out?

Meanwhile, Apple Fellow Phil Schiller marked the transition by quietly announcing yesterday that he’s stepping back from his active involvement in leading the App Store and Apple product events.

The news comes from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, so there’s been no official outside announcement. Schiller also remains listed on Apple’s Leadership page as an “Apple Fellow,” and by all accounts he’ll remain in that role. It’s just less clear what his remaining responsibilities will be.

Schiller effectively retired in 2020, handing the mantle of senior vice president of worldwide marketing — a role he’d effectively held for 24 years — over to his chief lieutenant, Greg “Joz” Joswiak. However, Schiller said at the time he had no plans to leave Apple, and continued heading up the App Store and Apple Events, reporting directly to CEO Tim Cook.

Now that Schiller is stepping back from those, the App Store will fall directly back under Apple’s senior vice president of services, Eddy Cue, who has already been pegged to take on a more influential role under Ternus. Cue had previously overseen the App Store from 2011, when he was first promoted to senior vice president, until 2015, when it was handed over to the marketing department under Schiller.

It remains to be seen how this will impact the App Store going forward, but many of Apple’s most controversial decisions surrounding its app marketplace have appeared to be senior executive team decisions, driven directly from the top — Apple CEO Tim Cook, who somewhat infamously appeared to have ignored Schiller’s advice regarding the injunction in the Epic Games kerfuffle.

The App Store leadership below Schiller doesn’t appear to be changing significantly. Gurman says it will continue to be headed up by Carson Oliver, who was appointed by Schiller two years ago, alongside Ann Thai, who was given the task of handling alternative app marketplaces. While these two directors were parallel on the org chart below Schiller, the new arrangement will see Oliver reporting directly to Cue, with Thai reporting to Oliver.

That mirrors a similar change in late 2025 when Apple’s chief operating officer, Jeff Williams, retired and handed over the health and fitness portfolios to Cue; Dr. Sumbul Desai became the vice president of health and fitness, while former fitness vice president Jay Blahnik found himself reporting to Desai. It seems Eddy Cue prefers more vertical reporting structures.

Meanwhile, Apple Events is transitioning to Kristin Huguet Quayle, the company’s vice president of communications and public relations, where it will continue to be headed up by Nola Weinstein, who has led that under Schiller since 2023.