Meet John Ternus, the 51-year-old former swimming champ who will succeed Tim Cook as Apple CEO

Apple has officially announced its most significant leadership transition in more than a decade.

John Ternus, the company’s 51-year-old senior vice president of hardware engineering, has been named as CEO Tim Cook’s successor, effective Sept. 1. Cook will become executive chairman of the board, and he will remain CEO through the summer working on the transition.

“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 a statement.