Apple’s new CEO John Ternus may have just told millions of professionals around the world that LinkedIn is ‘not important’

Apple’s new CEO, John Ternus, appears to be taking an unusually low-key approach to LinkedIn, despite now holding one of the most prominent leadership positions in the global technology industry.

Ternus became Apple CEO on September 1 after spending more than 25 years with the company. However, his LinkedIn profile has yet to reflect the change. At the time of reporting, it still identifies him as Apple’s vice president of hardware engineering rather than CEO.

His profile also provides relatively little detail about his long career at Apple, leaving out much of his work on major products, including the Apple Watch and AirPods.

For a technology executive who has risen through the ranks to lead one of the world’s largest companies, the limited professional profile stands out at a time when LinkedIn has become an important platform for executive visibility, thought leadership and professional networking.

John Ternus’ LinkedIn Profile Remains Sparse

Ternus’ LinkedIn profile contains only a brief overview of his professional background.

It lists his career at Apple alongside an earlier four-year stint as an engineer at Virtual Research Inc. His education section notes that he earned a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

Beyond that, the profile contains relatively little information. It includes a profile photograph and shows Apple among his followed interests, but offers few details about his career progression, leadership responsibilities or work on some of Apple’s most recognizable products.

Most notably, the profile had not been updated to identify Ternus as Apple CEO, even though Apple’s own internal pages were updated following his succession of Tim Cook on September 1.

The contrast highlights how executive visibility does not necessarily depend on maintaining an extensive presence across every professional platform.

Ternus Turns to X With a Simple First Post

While his LinkedIn presence remains limited, Ternus has recently established a presence on X, formerly Twitter.

His first post consisted of a single word: “hello.”

Despite its simplicity, the post generated significant attention. At the time of reporting, it had accumulated more than 81 million views and 523,000 likes.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and owner of X, responded by congratulating Ternus and later remarked on the new Apple CEO posting on the platform.

Ternus’ activity on X remains similarly selective. He currently follows only three accounts: Apple, former Apple CEO Tim Cook and Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Greg Joswiak.

What Ternus’ Limited LinkedIn Presence Says About Executive Visibility

Ternus’ approach provides an interesting contrast to the growing emphasis companies place on executive personal branding.

LinkedIn has increasingly become a channel for CEOs and other senior executives to communicate directly with employees, customers, investors and industry peers. Many business leaders use the platform to share company announcements, industry perspectives and leadership insights.

Ternus’ rise at Apple demonstrates, however, that a highly developed LinkedIn presence is not necessarily a prerequisite for reaching the highest levels of corporate leadership.

His career has largely been built within Apple itself, where more than two decades of product and engineering leadership provided an internal track record that a public professional profile could not replicate.

That does not necessarily mean LinkedIn is unimportant for professionals more broadly. Instead, Ternus’ case illustrates that the value of professional social media depends heavily on an individual’s career path, industry, network and visibility within an organization.

For marketers and communications teams, it also raises a broader question: as executive thought leadership becomes an increasingly important part of corporate communications, how much does a CEO’s personal social media presence actually matter?

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