Apple’s COO Retirement Offers Clues About Cook Succession
The post–Tim Cook era at Apple got a bit less fuzzy today. The company announced that Jeff Williams, its chief operating officer, will retire at the end of the year and pass the COO baton to Sabih Khan, Apple’s senior vice president of operations. Apple portrayed the change as an orderly changing of the guard, describing it as “part of a long-planned succession.”
But the change also offered further hints about who might eventually take over for Cook as CEO. As our Apple reporter Aaron Tilley pointed out in his brief on today’s news, Williams was for some time widely considered a possible successor to Cook. The two men earned their bona fides turning Apple’s supply chain operations into the envy of the tech industry, so it would have been logical for Cook to hand the leadership of the company to someone in his mold.
But Williams is only two years younger than Tim Cook, who is now 64. Setting up Williams as a successor may not have been the best message to send to Apple employees and shareholders, as Apple’s product line is looking a little long in the tooth, and the rise of artificial intelligence creates possible new threats for the company.
That may be why in recent years, there’s been growing buzz about John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, who is 50, as a possible Cook successor. With Williams leaving the scene, Ternus’ status as heir apparent becomes, well, even more apparent.