John Ternus Reclaims Apple Design With Hands-On Studio Role

Overview

• Since becoming CEO in early September, John Ternus has spent multiple days each week working inside Apple’s industrial design and human-interface studios, taking a direct supervisory role over both teams.
• Apple is not conducting an external search for a single chief design officer and has elevated internal leads Molly Anderson in industrial design and Steve Lemay in human-interface design.
• Ternus has shifted day-to-day operational duties such as finance and supply chain to CFO Kevan Parekh and COO Sabih Khan so he can focus on product and design coordination with hardware leaders Johny Srouji and Tom Marieb.
• The design studio has thinned after departures to firms like OpenAI, LoveFrom and Meta, prompting Apple to promote junior designers and hire external talent to rebuild its bench.
• The move signals an engineering-led approach to revive Apple’s design identity by integrating studio work with hardware execution, and it could affect future product decisions and hiring priorities inside Apple.