Apple said Monday that Tim Cook, its longtime CEO, will step down in September and be succeeded by John Ternus, head of hardware engineering. Ever since Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple 50 years ago and wowed the world with their computers, the company’s corner office has been a technological powerhouse.
Here’s who has led Apple as CEO over the years.
1. Michael Scott (1977 to 1981)
A year after Mr. Jobs and Mr. Wozniak, then 20, founded Apple, Mr. Scott, who had worked at two pioneering Silicon Valley semiconductor companies, Fairchild Semiconductor and National Semiconductor, was hired to act as the grown-up in the room. In an interview with Business Insider in 2011, Mr. Scott said his job was to “work out the details,” including “getting us into production and all the other business pieces.”
2. Mike Markkula (1981 to 1983)
Mr Markkula, an early angel investor and chairman of Apple, was known as the company’s third co-founder, alongside Mr Jobs and Mr Wozniak. During his tenure as CEO, he also contributed his technical skills, writing several early software programs for the company’s first popular computer, the Apple II.
“Mike was a tremendous contributor,” Floyd Kvamme, Apple’s first marketing manager, told The New York Times in 1997. “But he didn’t like the public eye. He liked to take care of the products.”
3. John Sculley (1983 to 1993)
Mr. Sculley came to Apple from Pepsi, where he was a marketing executive and then president. During the ten years of the company’s leadership, Apple’s revenue increased from $800 million to $8 billion. He and Mr. Jobs eventually entered into a power struggle over the leadership and future direction of Apple, which led to Mr. Jobs’s departure from the company in 1985.
4. Michael Spindler (1993 to 1996)
Mr. Spindler, formerly Apple’s chief operating officer, has become a lightning rod for customer and investor frustration with the company. During his tenure, Apple regularly mispredicted demand for its products, lost market share, and engaged in price wars that eroded its profits.
“My personality trumped the facts in that situation,” Mr. Spindler said in the interview with The San Francisco Chronicle in 1996, months after Apple’s board fired him.
5. Gil Amelio (1996 to 1997)
Mr. Amelio, who was president of National Semiconductor and a member of Apple’s board of directors, took over as chief executive when Apple was in financial freefall. He cut costs, terminated projects, including the operating system, and laid off about a third of the workforce. Under Mr. Amelia, Apple bought NeXT, the computer start-up founded by Mr. Jobs after he was ousted in 1985, for $427 million to replace the operating system he discontinued.
6. Steve Jobs (1997 to 2011)
Mr. Jobs, who co-founded Apple when he was 21, was the company’s most iconic CEO. He didn’t get there without a fight.
After Apple’s board of directors fired Mr. Jobs in 1985 after he clashed with Mr. Sculley, he founded NeXT, a computer start-up aimed at higher education and professionals. When he returned to Apple in 1997, he revived the company’s declining fortunes and set it on a path to prodigious growth.
Upon his return to Apple, Mr. Jobs oversaw the creation of a series of innovative devices: the iMac, the iPod, the iPad and the iPhone. These devices revolutionized consumer electronics and transformed entire industries, including music and telecommunications.
7. Tim Cook (2011 to 2026)
After Mr. Jobs died of cancer in 2011, his longtime deputy, Mr. Cook, became CEO. Mr. Cook joined Apple in 1998 from computer maker Compaq. In 2007, he became its chief operating officer, transforming the way Apple managed its product inventory and creating global operations that enabled the annual production of hundreds of millions of devices.
With Mr. Cook at the helm, Apple has ballooned into a behemoth worth more than $4 trillion with more than $110 billion in annual revenue. He also revolutionized the company’s supply chain, expanded its services business and established himself in Washington and Beijing.
8. John Ternus (September 2026)
Mr. Ternus, 50, joined Apple in 2001 and rose through the ranks, overseeing the development of its Mac and iPad computers. He became Apple’s head of hardware in 2021 and will take over as its CEO in September.
