Mike Markkula

Armas Clifton Markkula Jr. studied electrical engineering at the University of Southern California and worked at Fairchild Semiconductor and then Intel, where marketing roles and stock options made him wealthy enough to retire in his early thirties. In 1976 Steve Jobs sought him out, and Markkula, impressed by the Apple II prototype, helped refine the business plan and guaranteed a bank line of credit.

When Apple incorporated on January 3, 1977, Markkula became a major owner holding about a quarter of the shares of the company and its early chairman. He recruited Michael Scott as the first CEO and shaped the marketing philosophy often summarized by the words empathy, focus and impute, a way of insisting that even the packaging and presentation signal quality. From 1981 to 1983 he served as Apple's chief executive himself, a role he handed to John Sculley.

Markkula stayed on the board and remained a quiet influence for the next decade and a half, returning as a counterweight in the turbulent years of the 1990s. He stepped down from the board in 1997 when Steve Jobs returned and reshaped the company. Afterward he invested in other ventures, co-founded Echelon Corporation, and funded the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.