Sabih Khan

Apple's operations chief

Sabih Khan is Apple's Chief Operating Officer. Apple's leadership page says he oversees the company's worldwide operations, its environmental and social initiatives, and AppleCare customer service and support. He leads the global supply chain organization, which covers planning, procurement, manufacturing, quality, logistics and product fulfillment, along with supply chain innovation programs that support workers at supplier facilities. His remit also includes accessibility and AI data operations, and the page now shows him reporting to CEO John Ternus.^[1]

Early life and education

Wikipedia gives Khan's birth as 1966 in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, India, and says his family moved to Singapore when he was in fifth grade. He holds bachelor's degrees in economics and mechanical engineering from Tufts University and a master's degree in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, according to both Apple and Wikipedia.^[2][1]

From GE Plastics to Apple

Before Apple, Khan worked at GE Plastics, now part of SABIC, as an applications development engineer and key account technical leader. He joined Apple in 1995, and Apple says he has played a role in bringing each of the company's products to market. Wikipedia, drawing on contemporary press, reports an anecdote from Cult of Mac in which Tim Cook, after remarking that a problem in China needed someone on the ground, asked Khan why he was still there, and Khan took the next flight to China.^[1][2]

Senior vice president of Operations

Apple named Khan senior vice president of Operations on June 27, 2019, reporting to COO Jeff Williams. Fortune notes that from 2019 he oversaw Apple's global supply chain and product quality, including planning, procurement, manufacturing, logistics, fulfillment and supplier-responsibility programs. Wikipedia records that his department formed partnerships with green-manufacturing suppliers and, in 2020, changed supplier operations to protect workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, as reported by The Verge.^[2][5]

Succeeding Jeff Williams as COO

Apple announced on July 8, 2025 that Khan would succeed Williams as COO later that month, with Williams retiring later in the year. Apple called it a long-planned succession. MacStories reported that Williams and Khan had worked together for 27 years and that Khan helped cut the company's carbon footprint by more than 60 percent.^[3][5][2]

The American Manufacturing Program

On August 6, 2025 Apple announced a further $100 billion U.S. commitment, bringing its planned U.S. investment to $600 billion over four years, on top of the $500 billion it announced in February 2025. It launched the American Manufacturing Program with partners including Corning, Coherent, GlobalWafers America, Applied Materials, Texas Instruments, Samsung, GlobalFoundries, Amkor and Broadcom. Khan, quoted in the release, said Apple's engineers work closely with U.S. suppliers on leading-edge chips and that Apple wants America to lead in that industry.^[6]

The release also described a 250,000-square-foot factory in Houston for advanced Apple servers that will power Apple Intelligence and Private Cloud Compute. Construction began earlier in 2025, the first test unit was produced in July 2025, and mass production was slated for 2026. Apple said it planned to hire 20,000 people in the U.S. over four years and that its partners and suppliers support more than 450,000 U.S. jobs.^[6]

A new CEO and what it means for operations

On April 20, 2026 Apple announced that John Ternus, the senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, would become CEO on September 1, 2026, with Tim Cook becoming executive chairman. The board approved the move as the result of long-term succession planning. The announcement does not mention Khan, but his leadership page places him in the executive team reporting to Ternus.^[4][1]

Why he matters

Khan runs the function that turns Apple's designs into products at global scale, and he does so while trade policy, supplier concentration in Asia and demand for domestic chip capacity reshape the industry. His elevation, after three decades inside the company and six years under Williams, reflects a company that promotes from within its operations organization.^[1][5][6]

On The Executive List

Sabih Khan is ranked No. 65 on The Executive List (October 2026) in the Chief Operating Officers discipline. The ranking reflects The Executive Review's own editorial Trending Score; it is not an outside award, and placement on the list is never sold. View the October 2026 edition.