Philip Elmer-DeWitt blogs for Fortune, “With fresh concerns about [53-year-old Apple CEO Steve Jobs’] health following his gaunt appearance at the World Wide Developers Conference two weeks ago, it’s fair to ask: who’s on that executive team — and which ones have a shot at ruling Apple once Jobs leaves (even if he exits years from now and not for health reasons)?”
“There are 11 men in all — not counting Jobs. A handful are familiar faces to the small community of professional Apple watchers. As far as the general public is concerned, they are invisible, hidden in the long shadow cast by Apple’s high-profile CEO,” Elmer-DeWitt writes.
“Some seem more qualified to step into Jobs’ shoes than others, but judge for yourself,” Elmer-DeWitt writes. “Here they are, as listed on the company’s Executive Profiles web page, in rough order of their chances of succeeding Steve Jobs.”
• Timothy D. Cook, 47: Chief operating officer
• Tony Fadell, 38: Senior vice president, iPod division
• Ron Johnson, 49. Senior vice president, retail
• Philip W. Schiller, 47: Senior vice president, worldwide product marketing
• Scott Forstall: Senior vice president, iPhone software
• Jonathan Ive, 41: Senior vice president, industrial design
• Peter Oppenheimer, 45: Chief financial officer
• Bertrand Serlet, 47: Senior vice president, software engineering
• Sina Tamaddon, 50: Senior vice president, applications
• Daniel Cooperman, 56: Senior vice president, general counsel and secretary
• Bob Mansfield: Senior vice president, Mac hardware engineering
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “JES42” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Note: Elmer-Dewitt doesn’t offer Forstall’s and Mansfield’s ages. If you have one or both, with source links, please send them to and we’ll add them to this article.
Tim Cook, hands down.
Steve stays!
But not board member, Albert Gore? <ducks>
Tim Cook? He’s a bit old and doesn’t seem to have the same charisma and innovative style that Steve does. I vote for Jonathan Ive! His team designs the hardware so they know much about what people will want.
how morbid, i think jobs and his team have set the company up for a good 5 – 10 years on the right track, whom ever succeeded would have to be REALLY bad to steer the company wrong at this point.
Ahem! The rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.
Scott Forstall has the wry mirth.
Steady, and fun.
Unfortunately, Bertrand is really hard to understand when he speaks English.
I somehow have a gut feeling it could be Scott Forstall…
It’ll probably take more than one, if not the whole team, to fill the shoes anyway. Even then there will be growing room. It would probably take a few years for a true leader to emerge after that. Hopefully the transition will occur BEFORE Jobs leaves the planet.
The cool thing is, there’s a person named Emory working at Reseune to solve the problem of succesion at Apple.
Jon Ive.
Give the company to the bean counters and salesmen and you get Microsoft.
Where is Ariane?
Steve’s clone.
Who would best succeed Steve Jobs… ?
Me, because MobileMe
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We’re just being suckered into this discussion by a few cretinous market manipulators…
We all know there would be plenty of options. So let’s move on.
Steve Jobs is not dead yet, not by a long shot, but people are openly taking odds on who’ll be at his desk after the College of Cardinals votes, and white smoke wafts over Cupertino.
I’d feel odd if this were happening to me, but I guess that Steve Jobs and the pope are used to it by now.
Scott Forstall FTW
Jonathan Ive, hands down. He needs to have to ability to guide product development. Someone else can present if he doesn’t want to. Maybe even hire someone just to present.
I would narrow it down to Cook, Shiller, Forstall and Serlet, not necessarily in that order.
Bill Gates. (I think he’ll be looking for a job soon, charities were never his cup of tea.)
Jonathan Ive, if given the chance, would turn it down. He’s very shy. He got Steve to make his acceptance speech for him when he got an award, and he’s never made a presentation at WWDC or anywhere else. He’s happy doing what he loves, and that does not include being a public figure.
Algore, he da man. He’ll have to let us use his internet thingy if he takes over.
What ever happened to Ross Perot?
Bill Gates.
Bill Gates.
The best known IT person + The best computers = Market domination
“What ever happened to Ross Perot?”
Didn’t he just put Charlton Heston in charge of Soylent Green production?
“Jonathan Ive, hands down. He needs to have to ability to guide product development. Someone else can present if he doesn’t want to. Maybe even hire someone just to present.”
Have you seen Ive talk about Apple’s products? They used to show product spotlight videos at the Apple store. Ive was a regular in these videos. Listening to him actually got me more hyped up about Apple products than even Steve could.
Not having him present would be a shame. In fact, I think they should be doing that already.
i firmly believe that the most important trait that the successor should inherit or learn from steve jobs is the charisma, both on-stage and off-stage. he/she should have the passion for great design and the products as well as giving great presentations. that trait alone has greatly contributed to the hype that Apple has generated with iPhone, iPod, and Macbook Air.
as far as i’m concerned, Bertrand Serlet has a good sense of humor, but he can’t communicate as effectively due to his heavy accent. from the WWDC 08 keynote speech, i think scott forstall did a great job presenting about iphone to the developers. he’s got the ability to sort of have a friendly conversation with the audience once in a while, on-stage…
it’s important to have an effective succession plan in place, so that just in case something happens to steve, the company can go on producing revolutionary products, and that investor confidence will be strong.
I think the performance of Scott at the WWDC08 was really impressive and he’s young and will success Jobs 10 years later.
I remember that in Mexico, Cardinal Norberto Rivera was asked long time ago “Who do you prefer or think will be the next Pope after John Paul II dies?” and he replied: “I wouldn’t dare to say anything about because from the last 5 cardinals proposed for that, 4 of them are already dead”. John Paul II lived many more years after that.
I believe the same it is going to happen with Steve Jobs. Well, may be not with Scott Forstall and Jonathan Ive, but may be with the rest of the list.
Nina Conti. No one will know the difference.
It’s important to have a software guy to succeed SJ. Remember what SJ commented the scenario that a technology company to lead by a marketing guy? So, the most likely guy will be Scott. Bertrand will probably retired when a successor to SJ is needed.
Bill Gates
Invented ‘It’s barely good enough to work’ + paint customers who don’t know any better into a corner by eliminating competition = market domination
Is it just me, or does Scott Forstall looks like (when he’s talking on stage) he’s gonna surprise everyone with an AK-47 and shoot everybody down?
Those eyes…that look…they freak me out!
Bet you a nickel – or $175.05 (+1.89, +1.09%) x 1,000 at this current moment – this is a subject VERY dear to Steve
Consider what happened last time with the sugar-water man
Steve is good at learning as we go
And he will not repeat the same mistake twice
He’ll have things set up in such a fashion that, when the time comes, even Ballmer could run the ship and not screw it up
BC
It’s all agreed, we have a consensus – no one has the smarts and the insight to run Apple once Steve Jobs folder is deleted. It’s clear that no one is currently recognized as the person able to assume the position of CEO.
Still, regardless of one’s inherent qualifications, who has openly suggested that they are willing to take the post of CEO? That person would be either a fool or better than Jobs himself. The Cult of Jobs has no eyes and no brain.
Lotsa luck, fanbois, only a quarter of you will rally behind Apple’s new version of the Great Huckster. You know what that means, don’t you? The rest of you, the majority of you will exhibit disinterest, disappointment, frustration, anger, resentment, fear, anxiety, concern… you get my point.
“It’s all agreed, we have a consensus”
You’ve got way too many voices in your head. Evidently, one of those voices owns a thesaurus.
There are plenty of people qualified to run Apple. Maybe they won’t give you a hard-on like skinny old Steve Jobs does, but that really doesn’t matter. Most consumers couldn’t give a crap about who is running Apple.
Who is the CEO of the company that made your washing machine? Who cares?
ONE MORE THING……
(pinky finger to corner of mouth), presenting…..
Classic Steve, Mini Steve, and Nano Steve!!!
Speaking of voices, Ampar finally <strike>bleats</strike> “contributes” another nonsensical post. Way to go, Amp, I thought I spotted your fearful face behind MCCFR’s skirt. I thought you would have something more intelligent and witty to say, perhaps predicting Apple’s next CEO or changes in Apple’s stock prices when Steve Jobs HR folder finally gets shredded.
Let’s see how well Apple maintains its “lead” in “innovation”, and “security”, “stability” once the new CEO tries on Jobs’ shoes. I can’t wait, you? I hope it doesn’t occur after 2009, I need a new iMac that year.
What is nice is that they are all internal people. Even Fortune must know that Apple will not make another Sculley mistake.
Watch Forstall, he mimmicks Jobs every move…needs to take off the blinders and relax his face a little…composure comes with time and touches…he fits the next generation and won’t muddy up what Ives and Cook are already great at.
People, Jonathan Ive will never run Apple. For as much as I would love Ive to run Apple, there is a reason the he and SJ have office at the opposite sides of the campus – they don’t personally get a long.
You think Ballmer is a chair-chucker? There is a reason Ive’s office has shatter proof glass – he has a temper that shames even SJ.
Make no mistake, I highly respect the guy and he is a pure genius with industrial design, has incredible screen charisma, but also a mean streak the size of the Mississippi flood zone.
Ain’t gonna happens, although I wish it would.
Is there a Steve Jr. in the Jobs household??
I’m sure they will find a replacement but replacing “The Steve” will be impossible. Visionaries like him are a rarity and he cant be replaced. It might take 3 guys to replace him, one with vision, one with business savy and one that motivates the company to “excel”…
Clone Steve..
im never getting back the last 3 minutes of my life … thanks.
Shouldn’t the question be how long Steve needs to hang around before he can reasonably expect to be cloned?
Ho ho, little do these poor fools realise that there are Jobssss stored in the clone vats, ready to take over when I am ready…!
I’ve said before, Steve is almost the embodiment of Hank Rearden (Ayn Rand’s industrialist visionary hero), whereas business schools these days are apt to churn out James Taggart-esque (steal ideas, and be just another cog in the machine – Rearden’s polar opposite, essentially) suits. That doesn’t bode particularly well for Apple, or any other company.
However, we live in the present, so should just enjoy the ride Steve and Apple will take us on…
Mr. Ive is excellent at what he does, but since OS X debuted Apple has been a software company that uses hardware sales to get people to use it’s software. I know most people believe it is the other way around, but read Roughly Drafted and you will be amazed at the forward thinking that Steve has been doing with software ever since before NEXT, but especially during his NEXT days and now he is reaching his pinnacle of forward vision in the software realm. The biggest problem in replacing Steve is finding someone who is forward thinking, has a finger on what people want, is hungry like the wolf, and has charisma all at the same time. With that in mind Scott Forstall might be the man, but can there even be a man in computing like Steve anymore? Scott has been schooled in the existing dogma of computing, like nearly everyone else now-a-days, but during Steve’s (and Bill Gate’s) schooling there was no dogma in personal computing, you created your own. Can any current individual have enough of an open mind to “Think Differently” and forwardly? As Steve does?
I hope so.
@Deep Thinking
Yeah, that’s the problem.
Moreover, Steve isn’t even a ‘geek’ in the sense Bill Gates or Steve Wozinak are. Don’t you remember those (hilarious) WWDCs when he slipped over the tech terminology?
Steve’s strengths are his vision of what technology should be, and how it looks/feels. Not to mention his skill at business dealings.
Steve’s talents frankly cannot be taught.
Apple’s competitors are run by either accountants/ marketers or engineers who haven’t the slightest clue (or care) about consumer technology.
And business schools, from personal experience, are determined to turn future CEOs etc into those visionless drones.
Phil Schiller might be a good choice, though, since he has such zealous enthusiasm (heh)…
To sum up my previous post, Steve is a hard act to follow – remember how Apple went into accelerated decline when he was fired in ’85?
The business climate seems generally hostile to men of Steve’s caliber these days, preferring ones who don’t rock the boat or interfere with company cash cows and the like.
Microsoft can afford to lose Bill because the company wasn’t going anywhere, anyway, but Apple is the engine of the tech industry. It couldn’t afford to have an accountant/soulless drone in charge.
It isn’t a foregone conclusion by any means, but Steve is one of a kind.
Lisa Brennan-Jobs:
Apple is really a personification of Steve Jobs’ vision; none of the names on the list to me qualify to replace him as a visionary, they seem like corporate types; there was a time if you remember when these corporate types took Apple almost to its doom. Perhaps genetics is the key factor here, as in inherited traits (visionary). And for heavens—Steve Jobs still has a long way to go before retirement, at least 15 years more.
Did you ever stop to think that we are all one of a kind. Is Steve the only unique person on the planet? Nobody is going to replace Steve Jobs. They will simple fill the role of CEO.
Of course all of you MacTards are going to complain about how things just aren’t the same without good old Steve. You idiots complain about everything.
I been a forstall fan since his first appearance. Good natured, knowledgable. strong stage presense for a newbie, and I swear, he is being groomed for the position, Jobs sees a bit of his younger self in that whippersnapper. Jobs always has a “that a boy” smile on his face after forstalls presentaltion.
magic word. after. After steve leaves, several decades from now, it will be Forstall.
“Of course all of you MacTards are going to complain about how things just aren’t the same without good old Steve. You idiots complain about everything.”
Excerpt from “How to Win Friends and Influence People, The Anonymous Online Edition” with foreword by Afib.
Umm, I find it hard to get Elmer Fud out of my mind every time I read this guys name. Speculating on Mr. Jobs successor however is a past time well suited to a cartoon character.
Bob Mansfield: Senior vice president, Mac hardware engineering
But can this guy hold an audience? At least he knows about hardware.
Let’s wait for steve to give another show— O.K. ?
No one seems to understand why Steve Jobs is a great presenter and the reasons he is are so simple that it befuddles those who go on courses to learn stuff. He understands what he is talking about and is honest about it, this is the essence of charisma.
I only see one candidate, Jonathon Ives. When he does present products he does so with such passion. He has a mean streak? – no, he just needs to improve phraseology a little, just like Steve did.
(All the mean folks and crooks think I am a nasty person, all the nice people think I am OK, so who do I listen to?)
Apple has always been a design company, hardware vs software is a distraction.
Learn real values people!!
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Jobs and I are the exact same age. Curious, but when you get to 52/53 years of age, you don’t want to be a fat bastard as you can kill your ass with clogged arteries. Loosing weight is the best thing an American can do to increase longevity. I just lost 30 lbs and now weigh 148.5 lbs. People say, “good for you, you look GREAT.” When Steve looses weight, it’s a cause for concern. As if… What? Is Steve supposed to announce to the world that he actually intended to loose some weight? The guy drives around with no license plate so stalkers can’t track him down quite as easily. Maybe he wants to be slim AND not have to call the editors of ”Parade” magazine to explain himself.
Personally, I’m hoping that technology will allow Steve’s successor to be the disembodied head of Steve Jobs (a la Kitty Carlisle on the Simpsons).
If not, it’s hard to say, but I have been impressed with Scott Forstall – weird eyes and all.
• Jonathan Ive, 41: Senior vice president, industrial design
Or
• Bertrand Serlet, 47: Senior vice president, software engineering
Follow your own advice, Ampar, you pathetic fanboi. You should understand by now that I couldn’t care less what your opinion is of me. I have nothing but contempt and loathing for you. Am I making myself clear enough for you?
I now know why you use an alias. Your part of the witless protection program.
Lisa Brennan-Jobs
There we go!
The Apple never falls far from the tree.
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It’s gonna be Forestall. Watch it happen.
• Ivanka Trump. A gal who knows a thing or two about showmanship AND tough boardroom meetings. And the Trump cachet would help with Apple’s HQ building ambitions. Just avoid the temptation to gold-plate everything…
• Barack Obama. Think what you will of the guy, he is a gifted speaker!
• Steve Ballmer. He’d make a cute campus mascot, after MS fires him and he gets the lobotomy.
I think all this FUD about SJ’s supposed health problems is RIDICULOUS.
Let’s stop putting the cart before the horse. And please, let’s not put the horse out to pasture before he has a chance to run a few more races.
Why do these ash-les continue to blog about this crap?
Steve really loves what he does, so I’d expect him to still be there for the next fifteen or twenty years.
He is generally far more interested in new projects than ongoing lines of business. What has happened, and what will continue to happen, is that as major operational areas grow, their respective VPs get things done with less and less input from SJ.
One of his greatest skills, which I don’t think enough people give him credit for, is recruitment. He’s gotten some amazing people to join the company, many of them back when joining Apple looked like much more of a gamble than it does now.
-jcr
“He’ll have things set up in such a fashion that, when the time comes, even Ballmer could run the ship and not screw it up”
Unfortunately this is not usually the way for leaders who run companies as their own personal personality cults. They generally give little thought to successful succession, because 1) They don’t want the competition while around 2) They really don’t care what happens after they’re gone, and in fact would see the collapse as a vindication of their unique genius.
Generally what happens when such a cult leader dies is that because by nature they don’t put succession plans in place the remaining followers in-fight and struggle a but and one finally emerges as the new leader. losing factions split off and go their own way. So too will be the path for Apple.
What do you mean Apple after Steve Jobs ? Isn’t he GOD and is immortal ?
I wonder how Steve Jobs feels reading the innumerable articles and posts discussing him in past tense?
Don’t worry Steve it’s not like everyone is eagerly planning to attend the wake or thinks that your presence at Apple is currently completely irrelevant or harmful to Apple.
Unfortunately this is not usually the way for leaders who run companies as their own personal personality cults. They generally give little thought to successful succession, because 1) They don’t want the competition while around 2) They really don’t care what happens after they’re gone, and in fact would see the collapse as a vindication of their unique genius
3) It’d be impossible to develop a successor under such a presence. Could Steve Jobs have been “groomed” under a Steve Jobs?
4) You’d have the Pope Syndrome. As long as the predecessor is alive, any successor would have the very unwelcome duty of standing in the shadows and being second-guessed.
Put a blow up doll. As long as engineering, design and technical services remain intact, that is all that matters. And keep that lying sonofabitch Gore out of there, matter of fact, just cut him and check and send him on his way
“Could Steve Jobs have been “groomed” under a Steve Jobs?”
No, because a Steve Jobs couldn’t stand working for a Steve Jobs.
” As long as engineering, design and technical services remain intact, that is all that matters. “
Apple’s brilliance is creating a buzz around fairly ordinary technology that seldom does anything better than competing existing products and Steve is the man that does that. Take out Steve and all you have is another Dell or HP. The tech side can stay intact but without Steve’s over-hyping and RDF, they are nothing.
As is typical in larger companies, many of the “Not Steves” are hanging in there for the chance to run Apple. One of the “Not Steves” will emerge as the winner. The other “Not Steves” will then know they have no short term shot at the top job. All of the other “Not Steves” will likely move on to other companies. Apple will lose most of it’s talent and decline. This the way things work in companies run as personality cults. The market has seen this happen an hundred times before, which is why it is nervous about Apple.
With all respect for all Apple VPs, they have to replace, not only CEO Steve Jobs, but what Steve Jobs does very well: Innovate.
I believe that, if they wish, anyone of the VPs can learn this very precious skill, and one that’s Apple’s blood stream: Innovation.
They can start by visiting Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innovation
For the role of CEO, most “anybody” could fit the bill. For the innovation part we will have to pray God find us someone, otherwise Apple will have to create some “innovation committee” with very creative people which does not worry/care about Wall Street, so that they can continue to create great/visionary products.
“what Steve Jobs does very well: Innovate.”
What Steve also does well is brutally control the Apple work environment. The serfs are chafing under his rule, and once the cruel dictator is gone, will not fully understand how to use their new freedom. Factional infighting is an almost certain outcome.
“For as much as I would love Ive to run Apple, there is a reason the he and SJ have office at the opposite sides of the campus – they don’t personally get a long”
And you know this how?