Williams’ retirement at the end of this year has naturally raised questions about Apple’s leadership succession. As COO, Williams was often seen as a potential heir apparent to CEO Tim Cook, given the parallel with Cook’s own path from COO to CEO. If it was expected that Williams would be the next CEO, the news of his retirement would have taken on greater significance. The reality is, over the past two years, those CEO succession odds have shifted and now favor Hardware Engineering head John Ternus (50 years old). Ternus gained prominence after taking over hardware engineering from Dan Riccio in 2021, and he’s considered a strong product person with oversight of key devices: iPhone, Mac, and Vision Pro.

The naming of Sabih Khan as COO, who has been with the company for 30 years, follows Jobs’ playbook to fill key roles with loyal leaders. Khan is regarded for his role in shifting Apple’s supply chain away from China in recent years.

What’s unclear is what this means for Craig Federighi or marketing lead Greg Joswiak. Federighi first joined Apple in 1996 through the acquisition of NeXT. He then left in 1999 and returned to Apple in 2009 to run macOS engineering. Greg Joswiak is the most tenured Apple employee, joining 39 years ago, in 1986. That’s not a typo — 1986.

The buy-in for Apple’s leadership is remarkable. These executives have been well rewarded with AAPL stock appreciation, yet have remained with the company through the difficult chapters of reinventing itself every decade — from a computer company, to mobile devices, to services, and now entering the era of AI.

Apple survived the loss of Steve Jobs in 2011 and continued to thrive under Tim Cook. It also managed transitions like the removal of longtime iOS software chief Scott Forstall in 2012 and the exit of Jony Ive in 2019, without derailing its product momentum. In 2020, Phil Schiller, who first joined Apple in 1987 as a product marketing manager (left in 1993 and then rejoined in 1997 when Steve Jobs returned to the company), retired as head of marketing. Taking a step back, Apple’s leadership page has seen many changes over the past five years (Forstall, Ive, Schiller, a new retail chief in 2019 to new heads of hardware and marketing in 2020–21), yet the company’s performance and product pipeline have been steady despite the pandemic and geopolitical supply chain headwinds.

That said, Apple leadership can make mistakes. The speed at which it recognized AI as a force of change is a valid criticism, and one that is being addressed. I expect big news on that front over the next six months in the form of a new AI partnership or potential M&A (Perplexity).

The bottom line: over the past 13 years, Apple has had four key executives step aside — two of whom have retired, one is a Broadway producer, and Jony Ive, of course, just joined OpenAI. That means about every three years, Apple has lost a key leader, yet the show goes on. The underlying thread that has allowed Apple to remain at the top for so long is world-class leadership, and Steve Jobs’ role as the master leader still radiates today.

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