Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C Bernstein who’s coated Apple for twenty years, says succession has change into a subject amongst buyers. “You look down the list of executives, and it’s really not clear how this all pans out,” he says. “You wonder why there hasn’t been more transparency and exposure for the next leaders. It raises a broader question: Does Apple have a comprehensive and deliberate set of succession plans?”
Several individuals accustomed to Apple’s interior workings just lately mentioned the problem with Bloomberg Businessweek, requesting anonymity to talk about the delicate topic. If Cook had been to step down quickly, these individuals say, he would virtually assuredly get replaced by COO Jeff Williams, who emerged as the highest candidate to be Cook’s successor a number of years in the past. In 2015, Cook named Williams Apple’s first COO since Cook himself held that function beneath Jobs. That similar yr, Williams shepherded the primary main new product within the Cook period, the Apple Watch, to market. And, 4 years later, he changed Ive as the pinnacle of {hardware} and software program design. But Williams, who’s 61 this yr, is just two years Cook’s junior, and firm insiders say they suppose it is now unlikely he’ll be the brand new long-term chief.
People inside Apple say the probably successor could be John Ternus, the {hardware} engineering chief. In an organization whose success has all the time come from constructing category-defining devices, the ascension of a {hardware} engineering professional to the CEO job would appear logical. Ternus, who’s not but 50, would even be extra seemingly than different members of the manager staff to stay round for a very long time, doubtlessly offering one other decade or extra of Cook-esque stability.
“He has a lot of managerial characteristics like Tim.” Christopher Stringer, a former prime Apple {hardware} designer, known as Ternus a “trustworthy hand” who’s “never failed with any role he’s been elevated to.” Eddy Cue, the Apple government referred to as Cook’s closest confidant, has privately instructed colleagues that Ternus ought to be the subsequent CEO, in line with an individual with data of the matter.
Other names that come up embody Craig Federighi, head of software program engineering, a recognizable face amongst Apple’s largest followers who’s recognized internally to be conversant on company points nicely exterior of his purview, and Deirdre O’Brien, its head of retail and a Cook confidant, in line with one former government. People near the corporate take into account them unlikely successors.
