Gurman: John Ternus has become Apple's de facto design chief, working in the studio several times a week

Apple CEO John Ternus has effectively made himself the company's design chief, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported in his Power On newsletter on October 4, 2026. Since taking over as CEO on September 1, Ternus has immersed himself in Apple's industrial design and human interface teams, according to Gurman, as relayed by 9to5Mac and AppleInsider.

Several people familiar with the department told Gurman that Ternus works hands-on in the design studio several times a week, sometimes visiting multiple times in a single day. Tim Cook, by contrast, typically visited for about an hour once a month, the report said.

How design ended up with the CEO

Apple has not had a single executive overseeing both hardware and software design since Jony Ive left in 2019. The industrial design and human interface groups had separate leaders who reported to former COO Jeff Williams. When Williams retired in 2025, the teams were said to report to Cook instead.

According to Gurman, Cook actually handed responsibility for design to Ternus ahead of the CEO transition. AppleInsider notes that during the handover, the design chiefs were effectively Ternus's only direct reports before he took the top job.

No chief design officer search

Gurman says Apple is not searching for an outside chief design officer. Instead, the company has put two existing leaders forward:

• Industrial design: Molly Anderson, Apple's vice president of industrial design
• Human interface: Steve Lemay, who succeeded Alan Dye

Both appeared prominently at the iPhone Duo launch. Ternus sits above them as the final decision maker on design.

The studio has also been rebuilding after a wave of departures. 9to5Mac points to Dye's move to Meta and to designers hired away by OpenAI. Apple has responded by promoting junior designers and hiring outside talent.

A different split of the CEO job

AppleInsider reports that Ternus told employees Cook had spent his tenure focusing on where he could generate "the most value for Apple," and that Ternus intends to do the same while still being himself. Areas Cook was known for, such as finance and the supply chain, are now largely handled by CFO Kevan Parekh and COO Sabih Khan. Ternus is working closely with chief hardware officer Johny Srouji and hardware engineering leader Tom Marieb.

The first big test of that approach may be the touchscreen OLED MacBook Pro, which Gurman says in the same newsletter will be significantly lighter thanks to reworked internals.

The studio visits and the lack of a design chief search come from Gurman's sources, not an Apple announcement.

Sources

• Mark Gurman, Bloomberg Power On newsletter, October 4, 2026, as reported by the outlets below
• 9to5Mac, Michael Burkhardt, October 4, 2026
• AppleInsider, Malcolm Owen, October 4, 2026