According to the Financial Times , Tim Cook may be ready to leave his position as soon as next year, and Apple's board and senior executives have ramped up their preparations to secure his replacement.

Cook , who has been at the helm of Apple for more than 14 years, succeeded Steve Jobs and led the company to a market cap of more than $4 trillion. Cook's tenure since 2011 has overseen the introduction of hardware, including Apple Watch , AirPods and Vision Pro , but also services like Apple Arcade and Apple TV+. According to the Financial Times 's sources, Apple's senior vice president of engineering, John Ternus , will most likely take on the CEO role, but this decision hasn't been finalized yet.

Ternus has been with Apple since 2001 as part of its Product Design team and eventually stepped into a vice president role within the Hardware Engineering division, where he played a heavy role in the company's transition to Apple silicon.

According to the Financial Times , Apple isn't planning to announce the new CEO before its January earnings report. However, the report also noted that this announcement would come earlier in the year to allow the leadership team to transition smoothly in time for all of Apple's annual events. Earlier this year, Apple also announced Sabih Khan as the new chief operating officer, taking over for Jeff Williams.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at