Apple CEO John Ternus Steps Deeper Into Design as Company Rebuilds Its Creative Teams

Monday 5 October 2026 07:08

Apple CEO John Ternus is becoming increasingly involved in the company’s product design process as he takes a more active role in shaping the teams responsible for industrial design and user interfaces.

Ternus Expands His Role in Apple’s Design Operations

Ternus now oversees both Apple’s industrial design and user interface design teams, giving him a direct role in decisions that influence how the company’s products look and work.

His involvement is closely linked to his previous experience in hardware engineering. Before becoming CEO, Ternus was responsible for Apple’s hardware engineering, making product development a familiar area for him.

Bloomberg reported that Ternus has been spending significantly more time with Apple’s designers, visiting design studios several times a week and working directly with employees on their projects.

This marks a change from Tim Cook’s management style, as the former CEO reportedly visited the design studio roughly once a month.

Apple Works to Strengthen Its Design Talent

Ternus is also overseeing efforts to rebuild Apple’s design organization after the departure of several experienced employees to major technology companies.

Alan Dye was among the prominent designers to leave Apple for Meta, while OpenAI has attracted several Apple employees with design experience.

To strengthen its internal pipeline, Apple has promoted younger designers to new leadership roles and recruited additional talent from outside the company.

No Single Executive Leads Apple’s Entire Design Team

Apple has not returned to a structure in which one executive oversees the entire design organization.

Instead, Molly Anderson is responsible for industrial design, while Steve Lemay leads user interface design. Ternus remains the senior executive with final authority over major design decisions.

His growing involvement suggests that Apple continues to view design as a central part of its product strategy, even as the company operates without a single successor to former design chief Jony Ive.