Four top contenders at Apple to succeed Tim Cook

Tim Cook shows no signs of slowing down.

- Rolfe Winkler

Famous for rising before the sun to answer emails and work out, he has devoted much of his life to Apple and has said he wants to stay at the company for some time.

Yet since Cook recently turned 65, an age when other executives are often headed into retirement, analysts, investors and Apple watchers have been abuzz with chatter: Who is next in line to run perhaps the most iconic American company?

To be clear, Cook doesn't need to leave—Apple has no mandatory retirement age for executives—and there seems no pressure on him to do so. Notwithstanding the company’s recent stumbles in artificial intelligence, he has delivered spectacularly for shareholders, driving up Apple’s market capitalization by more than an order of magnitude since he took over the top job in 2011.

Apple’s longtime Chairman Art Levinson is 75, the age after which Apple board members generally step down. Cook, already an Apple director, could level up to chairman and make room for a new chief executive or take on both titles for a time like many of his S&P 500 peers.

The top potential successors include four current Apple executives, each overseeing a different part of the company. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.

John Ternus, 50, Hardware

Though young compared with other potential candidates, Ternus has been at Apple for 24 years. He is considered a front runner in part because Apple is a hardware company and he runs hardware engineering. He worked on the iPad, then later the Mac and AirPods before taking over responsibility for all of Apple’s products, including its most important, the iPhone.