Apple CEO Tim Cook announced his plans to resign from the position he inherited from the late Steve Jobs in 2011, handing over his title to John Ternus, Apple's head of hardware engineering, later this year, in a statement obtained by the Associated Press on Monday (April 20).

Cook, 65, will turn over his duties to Ternus effective September 1 while still remaining involved with the company in a transitional role similar to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings after they left their respective CEO roles.

“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,” Cook said in the statement obtained by the Associated Press. “I love Apple with all of my being, and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with a team of such ingenious, innovative, creative, and deeply caring people.”

Cook is credited for leveraging the popularity of Apple's iPhone and other products following Jobs' death, which included increasing the company's market value to more than $3.6 trillion. Apple had previously faced potential bankruptcy in the mid-1990s before Jobs returned as CEO in December 1996 following its acquisition of his company, NeXT, leading a turnaround powered by the introduction of the iMac (1998), iPod (2001), iTunes Store and iPhone (2007).

Bret Saunders