According to the Financial Times, Tim Cook could step down as Apple CEO as early as next year. And the board has started to seriously work out a succession plan. FT says that John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice-president of hardware engineering, is considered the frontrunner for the position.

Cook, who turned 65 recently, has been CEO for 14 years and overseen both incredible growth and his fair share of controversies. He’s also largely seen as responsible for Apple’s shift to outsourcing manufacturing, which has enabled it to operate at much larger scales than it did traditionally.

Rumors of Cook’s stepping down follow the retirement of Apple COO Jeff Williams, whose last day at the company was Friday. As part of that departure, there has been some shuffling of responsibilities at the exec

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