Apple's new chief

**Vishala Sri Pathma** (0:01)
It's the last bite of the apple for Tim Cook.

**Tim Cook** (0:04)
Good morning. This is my first product launch since being named CEO.

**Vishala Sri Pathma** (0:10)
It's World Business Report from the BBC World Service.
I'm Vishala Sri Pathma. On the way, Tim Cook is handing the reins over at Tech Giant Apple. We look at who's set to fill his big shoes. Plus, President Trump's hailing developments in Venezuela as the biggest oil deal in world history. Locals aren't so sure, though. And who owns a song in the age of AI? Sony Music and Warner Chappell are taking AI company Anthropic to court.
So we start in Silicon Valley because today marks Tim Cook's last day as CEO of Apple before he hands over to John Ternus tomorrow after 15 years in the job. He took over from Apple's founder Steve Jobs in 2011 And since then, the company's market value has jumped more than tenfold from around $350 billion to roughly $4.7 trillion today. Here's a look back at his Apple life.

**Tim Cook** (1:16)
Good morning. This is my first product launch since being named CEO. I love Apple.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:24)
5, 4, 3, 2, 1

**Tim Cook** (1:29)
Isn't it great we've democratized film and so you can make an entire movie on an iPhone? Today we're bringing 5G to iPhone. Apple Watch is the most personal device we've ever created.
Good morning. Welcome to Apple Park.

**Vishala Sri Pathma** (1:49)
Well, that was quite a montage there. He really has had a rather eventful few years, well, 10, 14, 15 years, I think it is, at Apple. So what do we know about the Apple Insider, who's about to take over as CEO? His name is John Ternus. Well, joining us now is Francisco Gironimo, who is Vice President for Client Devices at Market Intelligence Company IDC. Hi, Francisco.

**Francisco Gironimo** (2:16)
Hi, hello. Thanks for having me.

**Vishala Sri Pathma** (2:18)
Good to have you on. So we know that John is an internal hire. His official title at the moment is Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering.
What is it about him that got him the job? Because I suspect lots of people applied.

**Francisco Gironimo** (2:35)
Yes, John has been with the company for 25 years, and he always has been part of the product development, the design team, that's how, where he started.
But over the last few years, he became the leader for the hardware engineering team, which is basically the team that designs and develops all the hardware products, the iPhone, the iPad, the smartwatches, et cetera, that we use on a daily basis. So he has been involved since day one on the launch of the most iconic products that we have from Apple today. So he knows very well the company, knows very well the engineering and the technology behind, he has been leading that technology in that team, and he basically has been delivering hundreds of millions of devices to people around the world through the work that himself and his team has been doing. So he knows very well the company, and of course he's an engineer, and he knows very well the technology behind those products, which is a big advantage for Apple going forward.

**Vishala Sri Pathma** (3:48)
Yes, and the products are so important, so key and also incredibly synonymous with the Apple brand. But the technology scene has evolved somewhat in the last 15 years, and what's interesting, I think, is that Tim Cook isn't actually disappearing. He's going to stay on as executive chair, engaging with policy makers, we're told. What does that tell us then about this new line up?

**Francisco Gironimo** (4:15)
Well, I think that this line up will work extremely well, because from one side, we have someone like Tim Cook, who has led the company to become one of the biggest companies globally, being the first company reaching trillions in dollars of valuation. He brought the company to a scale that was unimaginable many years ago. So he built that capacity. He has been, I would say, the genius epic of execution. And at this point, Apple faces other kinds of challenges. It's one of the most successful companies on earth. And the challenge now is not whether they will struggle in the short term because there's a new CEO, because that won't happen. On the other hand, Tim Cook will stay there helping and supporting the leadership team and John Ternus in the future of the company. But Apple faces other kinds of challenges. From a technology perspective, it faces the challenges around AI and to make sure they continue to be relevant in this new AI era. But on the other hand, Apple has been facing lately some issues around and challenges around regulation with a lot more control from governments and other organizations. And that's where Tim Cook will play a very important role to maintain, develop and nurture those relationships with governments, with regulators, to be able to bring the company through all those challenges they will face. And they have been facing without major disruption. And that's where the combination of John on the technological side, on leading the company on a daily basis, and now with the new role of Tim Cook leading on this new front, I think it will be a very, very strong combination for Apple.