John Ternus is now officially Apple’s new CEO and, after Tim Cook’s handover, he wanted to speak directly to the company’s employees. After 25 years in Cupertino, John is beginning his new chapter with a brief but comprehensive memo and with a message that both employees and users will no doubt resonate with.
A first message focused on Tim Cook and on the team
Ternus devotes much of his message to thanking Tim Cook for everything he’s shared with him over the years, as well as his knowledge and experience during the transition, and everything he has contributed to the company.
Ternus speaks of Apple as “the best company in the world” and comments on what lies ahead. He especially mentions an “enormous launch” planned for next week and thanks the team for all the work over the past few months to make it possible.
We already saw it in Tim Cook’s farewell memo, and now we see it again with Ternus: the value of the teams at Apple comes first.
A transition focused squarely on the future
After the thanks, Ternus talks about the products Apple is already developing and those yet to be imagined, and about how the team will create them together. His growing public presence, which we’ve seen in his recent appearances at Apple Park and in many keynotes, shouldn’t distract us from the fact that John is, above all, someone with long experience in creating new products.
With Tim Cook as executive chairman and Ternus taking over the day-to-day as a brilliant hardware engineer, Apple is entering a very interesting new chapter, and it’s doing so while maintaining strong continuity. The first message from its new CEO makes it clear where the focus is: people and products, present and future.
The full memo, as reported by 9to5Mac, is as follows:
Team:
Today, on my first day as CEO, I wanted to send you a brief note to thank you all for the warm congratulations. I also want to express my deep gratitude to Tim for passing on so much of his knowledge and experience to me during this transition and, even more importantly, for everything he has contributed to Apple over these years. We’ve been enormously fortunate to have a CEO who has led with his values at the core and with such decency and humanity. We’re all better because of it, and I’m deeply grateful that he’ll be our executive chairman.
It’s an honor to take on this role at what truly is the best company in the world, and I’m tremendously excited about everything we have prepared. Next week we have a major launch that is going to be phenomenal. Thank you for everything you’ve done to make it possible.
I’m just as excited about everything that will come after that, including the incredible products already in development and those still to be imagined, which we’ll dream up and create together. There’s no better team in the world with whom I’d want to build the future.
More to come. In the meantime, thank you for your excellent work!
John
