Tim Cook can't run Apple forever. Who's next?

Tim Cook has transformed Apple since taking over as CEO from Steve Jobs in 2011, introducing new product categories (the smartwatch), pushing into new businesses (streaming video), and making an audacious attempt to take a new type of computing (mixed reality) mainstream. He's served for far longer than the average Fortune 500 CEO, and, at 63, is older than many of his peers.But if it seems like a logical time for Cook to start planning for someone else to shape Apple's next chapter, the situation is complicated by the lack of someone who's both ready immediately and likely to be a long-term successor.

Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C Bernstein who's covered Apple for two decades, says succession has become a topic among investors. "You look down the list of executives, and it's really not clear how this all pans out," he says. "You wonder why there hasn't been more transparency and exposure for the next leaders. It raises a broader question: Does Apple have a comprehensive and deliberate set of succession plans?"

Several people familiar with Apple's inner workings recently discussed the issue with Bloomberg Businessweek, requesting anonymity to speak about the sensitive subject. If Cook were to step down soon, these people say, he would almost assuredly be replaced by COO Jeff Williams, who emerged as the top candidate to be Cook's successor a few years ago. In 2015, Cook named Williams Apple's first COO since Cook himself held that role under Jobs. That same year, Williams shepherded the first major new product in the Cook era, the Apple Watch, to market. And, four years later, he replaced Ive as the head of hardware and software design. But Williams, who's 61 this year, is only two years Cook's junior, and company insiders say they think it's now unlikely he'll be the new long-term chief.
People within Apple say the most likely successor would be John Ternus, the hardware engineering chief. In a company whose success has always come from building category-defining gadgets, the ascension of a hardware engineering expert to the CEO job would seem logical. Ternus, who's not yet 50, would also be more likely than other members of the executive team to stick around for a long time, potentially providing another decade or more of Cook-esque stability.

"He has a lot of managerial characteristics like Tim." Christopher Stringer, a former top Apple hardware designer, called Ternus a "trustworthy hand" who's "never failed with any role he's been elevated to." Eddy Cue, the Apple executive known as Cook's closest confidant, has privately told colleagues that Ternus should be the next CEO, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
Other names that come up include Craig Federighi, head of software engineering, a recognizable face among Apple's biggest fans who's known internally to be conversant on corporate issues well outside of his purview, and Deirdre O'Brien, its head of retail and a Cook confidant, according to one former executive. People close to the company consider them unlikely successors.