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Four weeks before taking office, John Ternus is assembling his leadership team – and is bringing back a name that left Apple almost four years ago. Laura Legros was one of his closest collaborators in hardware development and is now returning as Vice President. Her exact responsibilities have so far been described in remarkably vague terms.
On September 1st, Ternus will take over as CEO from Tim Cook. Since the announcement of the change at the top in April, a restructuring of the leadership team has been underway behind the scenes, and the appointment of Legros is the first move that can be traced solely back to Ternus. It became public knowledge through a Bloomberg report citing sources familiar with the matter – there has been no official confirmation from Apple. Our overview of the upheaval in Apple's management outlines how the leadership team has shifted overall in recent months.
Key Facts at a Glance
- Laura Legros returns to Apple as Vice President and will report directly to John Ternus when he becomes CEO on September 1st.
- She was Vice President for Hardware Development until the end of 2022 and worked in Ternus's area at the time.
- Her future role has so far only been described as a cross-departmental activity.
- The hardware organization itself has been led by Johny Srouji as Chief Hardware Officer since April.
- Further transfers are imminent elsewhere, with Phil Schiller and Luca Maestri also expected.
A role that is deliberately formulated in an open-ended way
Legros is expected to work across departments as Vice President, collaborating with various parts of the company. The job description doesn't specify a product line, region, or function. This is unusually precise vagueness for a company that otherwise clearly defines responsibilities.
Also noteworthy is the reporting line. Legros reports directly to the future CEO, even though all hardware development has been under the purview of Johny Srouji as Chief Hardware Officer since April. A hardware manager with a direct line to the CEO's office is thus organizationally separate from the main line – a structure that looks more like coordination between teams than responsibility for a product.
Before her departure, Legros was one of the most publicly visible faces in the hardware sector. In 2018, she presented a new generation of the MacBook Air at an Apple event, and two years later she unveiled the design of the iPad Air, which remains valid to this day.
What happened to their task in 2022
Legros retired at the end of 2022, in the midst of a period in which Apple lost an unusually high number of vice presidents within just a few months. Her then-responsibility for hardware product management was taken over by her colleague Yannick Bertolus – who in turn retired himself in October 2023.
The role has changed hands several times since then. The fact that this particular personnel decision is now being reversed is therefore more than just a footnote: it's the correction of a departure that observers at the time described as part of a loss of substance in product development.
The renovation has been underway since April 20th.
The return is the latest step in a series of changes that began with the announcement of the CEO change.
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| April 20, 2026 | Apple announces CEO change; Johny Srouji becomes Chief Hardware Officer with immediate effect. |
| April 21, 2026 | A new AI platform is being integrated into the hardware organization. |
| May 19, 2026 | Srouji is reorganizing product development |
| June 21, 2026 | The design is reportedly moving closer to Ternus organizationally. |
| August 3, 2026 | Laura Legros returns as Vice President and reports to Ternus |
The restructuring of product development under Srouji's expanded responsibilities and the integration of a dedicated AI platform into the hardware team both took place under Cook's leadership, but with Ternus already designated as his successor. In parallel, Ternus has been supporting Cook over the past few months, co-leading management meetings, and participating in roadmap discussions for several areas for the coming year.
The next wave of retirements is looming
Ternus will have to replace significantly more top personnel in the coming years than he does now. Among those mentioned are Phil Schiller, who as an Apple Fellow will continue to be responsible for the App Store and Apple events, and Luca Maestri, who, since Kevan Parekh took over the finance department, has been Vice President of Corporate Services – including information systems, information security, and real estate.
The chain of departures goes back further: With the retirement of COO Jeff Williams in November 2025, Apple lost the man who had long been considered Cook's natural successor.
Reclaim instead of searching again
The biggest challenge for the future CEO has traditionally been retaining talent within the company. His first visible personnel decision answers this question from the opposite perspective: not retaining, but bringing back. Instead of hiring an external candidate with a fresh approach, Ternus is turning to someone whose working methods he knows from a decade of working on joint projects – Ternus joined Apple in 2001 and led hardware development as Vice President from 2013.
This aligns with the expectation that Ternus won't be radically transforming Apple. For the product side, this means little in the short term: the hardware for the next two years has already been specified and approved under Cook. If you're waiting for visible changes to the product portfolio, the earliest possible time for that isn't this fall, but rather the next generation.
One caveat remains. As long as the role is only described as cross-functional, it's unclear whether Legros is meant to solve a specific problem - such as coordinating between hardware teams - or whether she's simply being positioned as an experienced confidante within easy reach of the CEO. Both scenarios are plausible, and both would have very different consequences.
Apple's leadership team before September 1st
There are just under four weeks until the handover. Cook's last day as CEO is August 31; the choice of September 1 as the start date is related to the fall business calendar. Further personnel changes before this deadline are likely – the return of Legros probably won't be the last announcement of this kind. (Image: Apple)
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