Sabih Khan Named Apple’s New COO: An Indian-Origin Executive Rises to the Top
Cupertino | July 9, 2025 — Apple Inc. has also made a historic decision with regard to continuity and global diversity by appointing Sabih Khan as its next Chief Operating Officer (COO). The executive of Indian origin will officially take over office later this month, replacing Jeff Williams who is among the most reliable figures in the contemporary history of leadership of Apple. With this appointment Khan will now rank at the top-level of Apple global command structure, with one of the most sophisticated and highly complicated supply chain networks on the global platform.
The Rise of a Global Operations Visionary
Sabih Khan is a graduate of the United States who was born and brought up in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, India and came to work with Apple in 1995. He has played a key role in designing the global strategies of Apple and its production and logistics, sustainability and supply diversification in the past 30 years. A graduate of Tufts University (B.S. Economics & Mechanical Engineering) and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (M.S. Mechanical Engineering), Khan started to work at the GE Plastic, and then came the induction point into Apple.
In 2019, he was appointed Senior Vice President of Operations, in which role he guided the company through one of the most turbulent industrial check-ups in recent history – including the COVID-19 pandemic, US-China trade conflicts, and supply-chain realignments of epic proportions.
A Strategist Behind Apple’s Sustainability Shift
The provision of supply chain to Apple is marked particularly by Khan as a model that has been turned into a more resilient, environmentally concerned and geopolitically adaptive chain. In his leadership:
- Apple decreased its carbon by a rate of more than 60%
- The production was divested into India, Vietnam, and the U.S.
- Supplier relationships were connected with environmental power and decent work
CEO Tim Cook referred to Khan as a brilliant strategist and his visionary capacity to understand and execute the most complex of operations played a critical role in ensuring that Apple had its product pipeline intact-despite historic global shifts.
A Seamless Transition of Power
Jeff Williams who has been serving as COO for long was considered as the likely successor to Tim Cook will retire later this year after a smooth transition. He will remain the leader of Apple design and health teams at least until the end of 2025. The departure of Williams is an end of an era, as he was a high-level lieutenant on both Steve Jobs and Tim Cook and was on the launch teams of the Apple Watch, AirPods, and various generations of the iPhone.
The torch then shifts to Khan and his expertise in operations can be equated with that of Cook himself. The watchers mark this as the reiteration of the Apple philosophy the subdued and disciplined dominance through innovation, logistics, and sustainability.
India to Cupertino: A Global Leadership Journey
The promotion of Sabih Khan should not be perceived as a corporate change but as a moment of pride to the global Indian diaspora. A story of the perfect blend of education, vision and perseverance, his rise to the boardrooms of Cupertino is an epitome of how far education, vision and perseverance can take you, despite coming up on the streets of Moradabad. His appointment has received welcomed reactions by the industry leaders and the Indian government officials, who welcomed it as a strong expression of the expanded power of Indian-origin professionals in their impact on the global stages of the tech leadership.
What This Means for Apple’s Future
Khan is coming to his new position when Apple is rethinking its hardware agenda, growing its services, and ramping up its efforts in the fields of AI, augmented/virtual reality, and climate-neutral production. Analysts look toward:
- Enhance the manufacturing presence of Apple within India more
- Increase the supply strategy of Apple that is flexible and spread across nations
- Lead the next-generation sustainability initiatives in the company and look at carbon neutrality in the product line by 2030
In Summary
The promotion of Sabih Khan to COO is a clear indication of Apple being committed to spurring innovation, embracing diversity throughout the world, and excellence in operations. Blessed with knowledge on the engineering, the business, and the environmental fundamentals, he is bound to create a decisive impression on the next chapter of Apple.
Being on the verge of the Tim Cook era, Apple needs to plan its strategy well. The appointment of Khan is not only the symbolic gesture, but also clever, timely, and strongly future-forward.