Apple's New Chief Hardware Officer Restructures Leadership to Speed Up Product Development: Report

Apple veteran Tim Cook announced his step down from the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) role last month. Cook will hand over the reins to John Ternus, Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering at Apple, who will take over as CEO starting September 1 this year. At the same time, Apple also elevated Johny Srouji into a broader role as the company's Chief Hardware Officer. Bloomberg now reports that Srouji is making a series of changes inside the organisation in order to speed up work on future devices. The company is said to be witnessing a major internal reshuffle.

Apple Reportedly Shakes Up Hardware Division

As reported by Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, Apple's Chief Hardware Officer, Johny Srouji, is reorganising the company's hardware development and shifting oversight of key functions, including product design, "part of an effort to speed up work on future devices". The report, citing people familiar with the matter, states that Johny Srouji is reportedly making the internal changes this month.

He recently took on an expanded role overseeing both hardware engineering and technologies at Apple. Johny Srouji's appointment was part of a wider leadership reshuffle at the company, which also includes John Ternus being promoted as CEO.

People familiar with the matter reportedly said that the hardware shake-up at Apple is aimed at improving coordination between teams developing in-house silicon and those building future Apple devices. The responsibility of managing product design, which covers the look, feel, and main capabilities of Apple devices, is reportedly being shifted from veteran Vice President Kate Bergeron to two of her long-time deputies, Shelly Goldberg and Dave Pakula. Bergeron, meanwhile, will be overseeing product reliability across all Apple devices, which was previously held by Tom Marieb.

With the internal shuffle, Shelly Goldberg will reportedly head Mac design, and Dave Pakula will oversee Apple Watch, iPad, and AirPods. Richard Dinh will reportedly continue as the head of iPhone product design. 

Matt Costello is now said to oversee a new Ecosystems Platforms and Partnerships team, and Kevin Lynch is assigned to run a special projects group focused on robotics devices.

Further, Apple is said to be expanding the responsibilities of Silicon Engineering Group head Sribalan Santhanam and Advanced Technologies Group chief Zongjian Chen. Santhanam already oversees development of the main chips used across Apple devices, while Chen has led work on key new initiatives such as cellular modems. With the latest reshuffle, Santhanam will be additionally responsible for Apple's chip engineering teams and related works, while Chen will reportedly gain oversight of Apple's sensor software and prototyping efforts.

The latest internal restructuring comes less than a month after Apple announced major leadership changes. John Ternus will take over as CEO starting September 1, 2026. Cook will continue as CEO through the summer.