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Apple Inc.

Consumer electronicsFounded 1976
Reviewed by Swet Parvadiya
Company data updated: September 2026

Leadership History

Apple: CEO History

8 leaders · 1977 to present

Who is the CEO of Apple?

John Ternus is the CEO of Apple, in the role since 2026. The first chief executive was Michael Scott, from 1977.

Current CEO
John Ternus (since 2026)
First CEO
Michael Scott (1977)
Leaders documented
8
Founded
1976
NameRoleFromToYears in role
John TernusCEO2026Present< 1
Tim CookCEO2011202615
Steve JobsCEO1997201114
Gil AmelioCEO199619971
Michael SpindlerChief Executive Officer199319963
John SculleyCEO1983199310
Mike MarkkulaChief Executive Officer198119832
Michael ScottChief Executive Officer197719814
Who was CEO of Apple before John Ternus?
Tim Cook was CEO of Apple from 2011 to 2026, before John Ternus took over in 2026.

Company Overview

Apple sells premium hardware and owns the software layer that runs on it, which lets it charge for the device and for what happens after the sale. Fiscal 2025 net sales of $416.2 billion split into iPhone at $209.6 billion, Services at $109.2 billion, Wearables, Home and Accessories at $35.7 billion, Mac at $33.7 billion and iPad at $28.0 billion, supported by about 166,000 full-time equivalent employees. The company moved from a computer maker that nearly ran out of cash in 1997 to one of the most valuable listed companies, briefly touching $5 trillion in market value on July 28, 2026. The through-line is control: Apple designs its own chips, runs its own stores, and keeps app distribution and payments inside rules it writes, which is exactly what regulators in Europe and the United States are contesting. The company is headquartered in Cupertino, California. The iconic technology empire famously originated in a suburban garage in Los Altos, California, where Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak hand-built the Apple I, fundamentally changing the trajectory of personal computing forever.

John Ternus

CEO

2026 – Present

0 years (current)

Key Decisions & Impact

John Ternus became Apple's CEO on September 1, 2026, completing a succession Apple announced on April 20, 2026. Apple's board approved the transition unanimously, Ternus joined the board, Tim Cook became executive chairman, and Arthur Levinson became lead independent director on the same date.

Legacy

Before becoming CEO, Ternus was Apple's senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, the group responsible for the engineering of Apple's devices. Cook described his contributions to Apple as spanning 25 years when the succession was announced.

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Tim Cook

CEO

2011 – 2026

15 years

Key Decisions & Impact

Tim Cook's era was defined by scale, services, and operational precision. He expanded Apple Music, iCloud, Apple Pay, Apple TV, AppleCare, and subscription bundles, and oversaw Apple Watch, AirPods, Apple silicon, and Vision Pro. Cook deepened supplier discipline, returned large amounts of capital to shareholders, and made privacy and environmental commitments part of the brand. Apple says market capitalization grew from about $350 billion to $4 trillion during his tenure and annual revenue nearly quadrupled from $108 billion in fiscal 2011 to more than $416 billion in fiscal 2025, with net income of $112.0 billion in fiscal 2025.

Legacy

Cook earned an industrial-engineering degree from Auburn University and an MBA from Duke's Fuqua School of Business, then spent 12 years at IBM's personal-computer business before serving as COO of the reseller division at Intelligent Electronics and briefly as vice president of corporate materials at Compaq. Steve Jobs recruited him to Apple in 1998 to overhaul its supply chain, and after years as COO he succeeded Jobs as CEO in August 2011, shortly before Jobs's death that October. On September 1, 2026, he handed the CEO role to John Ternus and became executive chairman of Apple's board.

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Steve Jobs

CEO

1997 – 2011

14 years

Key Decisions & Impact

Steve Jobs's second Apple era was defined by focus. He cut the product lineup, ended Mac clone licensing, rebuilt design discipline, launched the iMac, opened Apple retail stores, and created the iPod-iTunes ecosystem before introducing the iPhone and iPad. Jobs turned simplicity into a financial strategy by making hardware, software, retail, and marketing reinforce one another. The measurable outcome was one of the strongest corporate recoveries in modern business, moving Apple from near-bankruptcy to the center of mobile computing.

Legacy

Jobs enrolled at Reed College but dropped out after six months, later working as a video-game designer at Atari before he and Steve Wozniak founded Apple Computer in the Jobs family garage in 1976, funding the venture by selling Jobs's Volkswagen van and Wozniak's scientific calculator. After being pushed out in 1985 following his clash with John Sculley, Jobs founded NeXT and bought the animation studio that became Pixar before returning to Apple through the 1996 NeXT acquisition, becoming interim CEO in 1997 and permanent CEO in 2000.

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Gil Amelio

CEO

1996 – 1997

1 year

Key Decisions & Impact

Gil Amelio led Apple during a short but important crisis period. He inherited weak finances, an aging operating system, and a product lineup that lacked clarity. His most important decision was acquiring NeXT, which brought modern software assets and Steve Jobs back into Apple's orbit. Amelio did not lead the turnaround himself, but the NeXT deal made the turnaround possible. His tenure shows that a leader can be consequential even when the immediate operating results are poor.

Legacy

Amelio built his reputation as a corporate turnaround specialist at Rockwell International and then as CEO of National Semiconductor, where he was credited with transforming it from a struggling third-tier chipmaker into a more respected competitor, before joining Apple's board in 1994 and becoming CEO in 1996. His defining decision was Apple's roughly $429 million acquisition of NeXT in December 1996, choosing Jobs's NeXTSTEP operating system over rival bid Be Inc.'s BeOS and bringing Jobs back to Apple as an adviser, a move that led to Amelio's own ouster by the board less than a year later.

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Michael Spindler

Chief Executive Officer

1993 – 1996

3 years

Legacy

Michael Spindler served as chief executive of Apple Inc. from 1993 to 1996.

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John Sculley

CEO

1983 – 1993

10 years

Key Decisions & Impact

John Sculley brought consumer-marketing discipline from Pepsi and helped turn Apple into a more professionally managed public company. His era included the Macintosh launch and a stronger emphasis on brand positioning, but he also oversaw high pricing, internal conflict, and the break with Steve Jobs. Sculley tried to protect margins in a PC market that was moving toward cheaper IBM-compatible machines. The measurable outcome was mixed: Apple remained culturally influential, but it lost platform share and entered the 1990s with strategic confusion.

Legacy

Sculley, a Wharton MBA who had built his reputation running Pepsi's marketing organization, was recruited to Apple in 1983 after Steve Jobs asked him, 'Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to change the world?' Apple paid him roughly $1 million a year, split between salary and bonus, to leave a $500,000-a-year job at Pepsi. He initially worked closely with Jobs, and after the two clashed over management style the board sided with Sculley, forcing Jobs out of the company in 1985. Apple sales grew from about $800 million to $8 billion over his decade as chief executive.

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Mike Markkula

Chief Executive Officer

1981 – 1983

2 years

Legacy

Mike Markkula served as chief executive of Apple Inc. from 1981 to 1983.

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Michael Scott

Chief Executive Officer

1977 – 1981

4 years

Legacy

Michael Scott served as chief executive of Apple Inc. from 1977 to 1981.

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Challenges & Strategic Context

Regulation is the sharpest pressure on Apple's model. The European Union's Digital Markets Act has forced alternative app stores, alternative payment processing and browser choice screens in the EU, and it allows fines of up to 10 percent of worldwide net sales for noncompliance. In the United States, the Justice Department and a group of state attorneys general sued Apple on March 21, 2024 in the District of New Jersey, alleging monopolization of markets for performance smartphones. In the Epic Games case, a California federal court found on April 30, 2025 that Apple had violated the 2021 injunction and barred it from charging any commission on purchases consumers make outside an app; Apple appealed to the Ninth Circuit, which heard argument in October 2025. A third exposure runs through Google: the search default payments that flow into Services are subject to the remedies a Washington court ordered on September 2, 2025 in the government's case against Google, now under appeal. Demand risk is concentrated as well. Greater China net sales fell 4 percent to $64.4 billion in fiscal 2025, and tariff costs weighed on product gross margin during the year. Siri is the other open question: the rebuilt version shipped only as a beta with iOS 27 in September 2026 and was not available in the EU at launch.

Apple CEO and Leadership FAQ

Who is the CEO of Apple now?

John Ternus has been Apple's CEO since September 1, 2026. He was previously senior vice president of Hardware Engineering and succeeded Tim Cook, who became executive chairman of Apple's board.

Who is Tim Cook and what defined his time as CEO of Apple?

Tim Cook was Apple's CEO from August 2011 to August 31, 2026, after serving as chief operating officer. Apple says its market capitalization grew from about $350 billion to $4 trillion and yearly revenue from $108 billion (FY2011) to more than $416 billion (FY2025) during his tenure, with Apple Watch, AirPods and Apple Vision Pro launched as new categories.

What was Steve Jobs's legacy across his two tenures as CEO of Apple?

Steve Jobs co-founded Apple in 1976, was ousted in 1985, and returned in 1997 to execute the greatest turnaround in corporate history, introducing the iMac (1998), iPod (2001), iTunes, iPhone (2007), and iPad (2010), and redefining modern consumer computing.

Who was John Sculley and what was his tenure as Apple CEO from 1983 to 1993?

Recruited by Steve Jobs from PepsiCo with the line about selling sugar water, John Sculley was CEO for a decade from 1983. Apple sales grew from about $800 million to $8 billion under him and the Macintosh launched in 1984, but he clashed with Jobs, whose 1985 departure followed, and the platform lost ground to IBM-compatible PCs.

Who were Michael Spindler and Gil Amelio during Apple's near-bankruptcy era in the 1990s?

Michael Spindler (CEO 1993 to 1996) and Gil Amelio (CEO 1996 to 1997) led Apple during severe financial distress and OS development failures; Amelio made the historic decision in December 1996 to acquire Steve Jobs's NeXT for $429 million, bringing Jobs back.

Who was Michael Scott and what was his role as Apple's first CEO?

Michael Scott served as Apple's first official CEO from 1977 to 1981, recruited by early investor Mike Markkula to provide adult administrative supervision, manage the Apple II production ramp, and oversee Apple's 1980 IPO.

Who is Luca Maestri and what is his role as Chief Financial Officer at Apple?

Luca Maestri was Apple's chief financial officer from 2014 until the start of 2025, when Kevan Parekh took the role. Maestri oversaw the capital return program, the net cash neutral target and Apple's international tax matters, including the Irish state aid case.

Who was Jony Ive and what was his design partnership with Steve Jobs and Tim Cook?

Jony Ive led Apple's industrial design from 1996, served as chief design officer from 2015, and left in 2019. Working first with Steve Jobs and later under Tim Cook, he shaped the iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, including the unibody aluminum enclosures.

Who is Johny Srouji and what is his leadership role in Apple Silicon?

Johny Srouji, Senior Vice President of Hardware Technologies, has led Apple's custom silicon engineering division since 2008, architecting the A-series (beginning with the A4 in 2010) and the M-series processors that power Apple's silicon independence.

Who is the CEO of Apple?

Tim Cook took over as CEO in 2011 just prior to Steve Jobs' passing, famously transforming the company into an absolute supply chain juggernaut and the most valuable corporation on earth.

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Content is for informational purposes only. Not financial advice. Data sourced from SEC filings, annual reports, and public records. See our full disclaimer and methodology.