Apple has announced that veteran John Ternus will take over as the chief executive officer of the tech major in September this year. Tim Cook, the current Apple CEO, will become the executive chairman of the board when he steps down.

“It has been the greatest privilege of my life to be the CEO of Apple and to have been trusted to lead such an extraordinary company,” said 65-year-old Cook in a statement.

Cook, who joined Apple in 1998, is credited with taking the company’s value to $4 trillion and also for steering the expansion of its product line.

Cook had taken over as the CEO of Apple in 2011 after its co-founder Steve Jobs quit over health issues.

Ternus has been associated with Apple since 2001 when he joined the company’s product design team. He rose to the rank of senior vice president of hardware engineering over the next two decades.

Ternus has played key roles in several Apple products including iPhones, iPads, Apple Watch, Mac computers and others.

“I am profoundly grateful for this opportunity to carry Apple’s mission forward. Having spent almost my entire career at Apple, I have been lucky to have worked under Steve Jobs and to have had Tim Cook as my mentor,” said Ternus in a statement.

The development comes as Apple celebrates 50 years of its existence this year amid artificial intelligence challenges.

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