Apple is Increasingly Focused on Developing Succession Plan for Cook, Other Executives [Report]

Apple is increasingly focused on developing a succession plan for CEO Tim Cook and other top executives, reports Bloomberg.

As Cook begins his 10th year at the helm, his management group is filled mostly with senior vice presidents who have worked at Apple for more than two decades, made tens of millions of dollars and are at or near the ages of 55 to 60 when many previous executives have stepped aside. That, along with typical corporate planning, has spurred the Cupertino, California-based company to cultivate its next class of top managers, said people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified talking about internal company discussions. Apple declined to comment.

If Tim Cook were to retire, Apple has purportedly chosen Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams to take over. Starting in 2013, Williams oversaw development of the Apple Watch and the company's health initiatives. In 2019, he took on oversight of Industrial and Human Interface design, following Jonathan Ive's departure. Similar to Cook, Williams is seen as an operations-focused executive rather than a product visionary.

If Williams moves to CEO, Apple has a team of veterans that could take over as COO including Sabih Khan, the current SVP of Operations, Dan Rosckes, Rob York, and Rory Sexton. Notably, sources say Priya Balasubramaniam, head of iPhone operations, may be the most likely long-term successor.

Although Greg Joswiak just took over for Phil Schiller as SVP of Worldwide Marketing, Apple has a list of potential successors for the role with the 'smart money' being on VP of iPhone marketing Kaiann Drance to eventually take over. Other possibilities include Stan Ng and Susan Prescott.

As the youngest member of Apple's executive team, Craig Federighi, 51, will likely remain in his role for several years; however, there are at least two key individuals who could fill the position. They are Sebastien Marineau-Mes, vice president of Intelligent Systems Experience, and Jon Andrews, who was named a vice president in charge of CoreOS last year.

Eddy Cue, who has worked for over 30 years at Apple, is currently in charge of the company's rapidly growing services segment. Bloomberg sources say his eventual successor is Peter Stern.

Dan Riccio, who runs Apple's hardware engineering division, would likely be succeeded by John Ternus. Johny Srouji, head of Hardware Technologies, would likely be replaced by Sribalan, vice president of Silicon Engineering. CFO Luca Maestri could be succeeded by Saori Casey, current vice president of finance, or an outside hire.

Hit the link below more for the full report and more details on Apple's succession plans.

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