Apple Engineering VP Dan Riccio Tapped for Secret Project

January 26, 2021

John Ternus will join the executive team as senior vice president of Hardware Engineering

Dan Riccio will transition to a new role focusing on a new project and reporting to CEO Tim Cook, building on more than two decades of innovation, service, and leadership at Apple. John Ternus will now lead Apple’s Hardware Engineering organization as a member of the executive team.

“Every innovation Dan has helped Apple bring to life has made us a better and more innovative company, and we’re thrilled that he’ll continue to be part of the team,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “John’s deep expertise and wide breadth of experience make him a bold and visionary leader of our Hardware Engineering teams. I want to congratulate them both on these exciting new steps, and I’m looking forward to many more innovations they’ll help bring to the world.”

Riccio has been a leader in designing, developing, and engineering almost all of Apple’s products. From the first generation iMac to the more recent 5G iPhone lineup, M1-based Macs, and AirPods Max, Riccio built the Hardware Engineering teams and scaled Apple’s ability to innovate across multiple new product lines with the highest quality. After joining Apple in 1998 as a leader on the Product Design team, Riccio became vice president of iPad Hardware Engineering in 2010, and in 2012 he joined the executive team as the leader of Hardware Engineering. Riccio will continue to play an instrumental role in shaping the future of Apple’s products in his new position as a vice president of engineering.

“Working at Apple has been the opportunity of a lifetime, spent making the world’s best products with the most talented people you could imagine,” said Riccio. “After 23 years of leading our Product Design or Hardware Engineering teams — culminating with our biggest and most ambitious product year ever — it’s the right time for a change. Next up, I’m looking forward to doing what I love most — focusing all my time and energy at Apple on creating something new and wonderful that I couldn’t be more excited about.”

Ternus takes on the role of senior vice president of Hardware Engineering. Ternus joined Apple’s Product Design team in 2001 and has been a vice president of Hardware Engineering since 2013.

Throughout his nearly 20 years at Apple, Ternus has overseen hardware engineering work on a variety of groundbreaking products, including the first generation AirPods, and every generation of iPad. Most recently, Ternus led the hardware team responsible for the incredible iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro, and he has been a key leader in the ongoing transition of the Mac to Apple silicon. Ternus graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.