Yesterday, Apple unexpectedly announced the most radical shakeup to its C-suite in years. The company revealed that Jeff Williams, its current chief operating officer (COO), will be departing the role this month and retiring at the end of the year. Williams has been in the position since 2010 and, as COO, oversees Apple’s worldwide operations. When Williams steps down, his current subordinate, Apple’s senior vice president of operations, Sabih Khan, will assume the COO role.
Both Williams and Khan are extremely competent leaders and are deeply involved in the day-to-day operations of the company. Both have also been with the company since the 1990s. However, of the two men, only Williams has made the typical short lists of current Apple executives who are possible replacements for Tim Cook once the current CEO retires. That poses the question: Now that Williams is retiring, who are the potential successors left at Apple to become the next CEO?
Tim Cook’s potential Apple CEO successors
Back in 2023, I explored the possible executives at Apple who could step into the CEO role once Tim Cook retired. Cook has been Apple’s CEO since Steve Jobs’ passing in 2011, and under his leadership, Apple has transitioned from a company worth billions to one worth trillions. It’s understandable, then, that finding a competent successor to Cook is top of mind for many institutional Apple investors, not to mention the company’s board.
In my previous exploration of Cook’s possible successors, Williams was perhaps the most obvious choice among the execs I mentioned.
“Perhaps no one, aside from Cook, has as comprehensive an understanding of what it takes to keep all the widgets moving and wheels spinning at Apple as Williams does,” I wrote. “…he’s at least as qualified, if not more, than Cook was when he assumed the role of Apple CEO.”
And that remains true. But now that Williams is retiring, as he says, to “spend more time with friends and family, including five grandchildren and counting,” he is no longer an option. So, who is, among the executives at Apple in 2025? Here are the five most likely candidates:
- John Ternus: Ternus is Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, holding the role since 2013. If you’ve watched Apple’s keynotes in recent years, you’ll know he’s an increasingly visible member of Apple’s C-suite, which may be a sign in itself that the company sees him as CEO material. Ternus played a major part in the transition of the company’s computers from Intel chips to Apple Silicon, one of the best moves the company has made recently, and has overseen hardware engineering on the company’s most popular products, including the iPhone, iPad, Macs, and AirPods. A big bonus is that Ternus joined Apple in 2001 as a product designer, suggesting that, like Jobs, he has a keen eye for product detail.
- Sabih Khan: While Khan was serving as Apple’s senior vice president of operations, he didn’t seem like an obvious candidate for CEO, despite his 30-year history at the company. But now that he will soon be the company’s COO—arguably its most important position besides CEO—and will also report directly to Cook, one can’t help but think that Apple may be prepping Khan, and making investors comfortable with him, to take the CEO role when Cook retires. As VP of ops, Khan has a deep understanding of managing Apple’s global supply chain—knowledge that is critical in this world of tariff uncertainty we live in.
- Craig Federighi: Besides Cook, Federighi is probably Apple’s most recognizable figure. The silver-haired exec features heavily in Apple’s keynotes, usually in humorous scenarios, like being an F1 race-car driver. He also happens to be the company’s senior vice president of software engineering, overseeing its most important operating systems: iOS and macOS. However, as I’ve learned from interviewing him many times, Federighi also possesses a deep understanding of the tech industry as a whole and the significant role technology plays in everyday society. Those are skills that the CEO of one of the world’s largest tech companies needs to have.
- Eddy Cue: Cue is Apple’s senior vice president of services—an increasingly important revenue stream for Apple, considering, like most services, they are high margin and profits are made via recurring subscriptions. Cue oversees Apple Music, Apple News, iCloud, Apple TV+, and more. He also played a central role in the creation of the original iTunes Music Store in 2003, which marked a paradigm shift in the way music was purchased and consumed. What’s especially astounding is that in 2014, Apple’s services brought in just $4.8 billion in revenue. However, under Cue’s leadership, the division generated $100 billion for fiscal 2024. Services are a critical part of Apple’s future, and a deep understanding of the sector is critical for Apple’s next CEO.
- Greg Joswiak: Better known as “Joz,” Joswiak is Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing. That probably gives him a better understanding of Apple’s narrative—and how the company presents itself to consumers and the world—than anyone else at Apple. And next year, Joswiak will have been with the company for 40 years, which gives him unique insight into its culture. He’s seen Apple at its worst (the post-Jobs ’80s and ’90s) and its best (the late ’90s-early 2000s Jobs renaissance—not to mention the Tim Cook era). He was also instrumental in developing the original iPod—the device that turned Apple into a 21st-century tech juggernaut.
Age matters
My educated guess is that Apple’s next CEO will come from the above list. These executives have a long history with the company (and its culture) and are reportedly well-liked by both leadership and everyday employees in Cupertino.
However, many on this list have one thing going against them: their age. While age often equates to experience and understanding—qualities critical for a CEO —with increasing age comes the increasing likelihood of retirement. CEO shakeups bring uncertainty, and, generally, the longer a CEO stays in place, the more uncertainty can be mitigated. And investors, Apple’s board, and its employees are going to want to know that Apple’s next CEO is going to stick around for a long while.
When Tim Cook became CEO in 2011, he was only 50. He has now been in the position for nearly 14 years. Stakeholders are going to want Apple’s next CEO to stick around for a long time as well—at the very least seven to ten years, if not longer.
Williams is retiring at the age of 63—are other Apple execs going to stay around much longer?
From the list above, Greg Joswiak is already 61, Eddy Cue is 60, Sabih Khan is 59, Craig Federighi is 56, and John Ternus is 50. If Cook sticks around even just a few more years, three of those men would already be in their 70s when they would hit their tenth year as CEO—and that’s if they wouldn’t choose to do what Williams is doing: enjoying his retirement while he is still relatively young.
This makes me think that the Apple CEO investors would be most happy with is John Ternus, Apple’s current senior vice president of hardware engineering.
It is worth noting, however, that Apple is under no obligation to select its next CEO from within its ranks. The board may choose to appoint someone from the outside to be Apple’s next chief executive. But with the exception of a current non-Apple executive, such as former Apple design chief Jony Ive, I don’t see investors—or Apple employees—reacting well to someone who does not have a long (and recent) history with the company.
For the good of Apple, Tim Cook should remain CEO for a while
Just because COO Jeff Williams has announced his retirement, it doesn’t mean Tim Cook has to follow him out the door shortly after. Still, the current CEO has said that Apple does have detailed succession plans in place for that inevitable day.
And it is very likely that Cook is in his final years as CEO. He has been in the position for 14 years already, and at 64, he must be thinking about leaving professional life to enjoy retirement while he is still quite young.
Yet, as I argued earlier this year, I believe it is imperative that Cook does not leave Apple before 2029. Why? Because the business world is facing more uncertainty than it has in decades. President Trump’s tariff wars, America First policy, and grudges against businesses that don’t comply with his wishes expose even the largest companies, such as Apple, to significant risk and uncertainty.
But Apple has one thing many other businesses don’t right now: a CEO with a relatively good personal relationship with President Trump. And like it or not, in times like these, that matters.
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