The people behind the products
Founders & CEOs
Two Steves in a garage, a parade of executives who nearly sank the ship, and the operations genius who built a three-trillion-dollar company. The people who ran Apple.
Steve Jobs
The visionary co-founder, famous for taste, theatrics and a “reality distortion field.” Pushed out in 1985, he returned in 1997 when Apple bought his company NeXT, then steered the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad — turning a near-bankrupt company into the most valuable on Earth.
Steve Wozniak
The engineering genius who single-handedly designed the Apple I and Apple II — elegant, cost-cutting circuitry that made personal computing affordable. The heart to Jobs’ showmanship; he drifted from day-to-day work after a 1981 plane crash and left in 1985.
Ronald Wayne
The forgotten third co-founder. He drew Apple’s first logo (Newton under a tree) and wrote the partnership agreement — then, nervous about the financial risk, sold his 10% stake back for $800 just twelve days in. That share would later be worth hundreds of billions.
Michael “Scotty” Scott
Apple’s very first CEO, brought in to give the young company adult supervision. Eccentric and blunt, he steadied early operations but is best remembered for “Black Wednesday” in 1981 — a sudden round of firings that unsettled the staff and soon cost him the job.
Mike Markkula
Employee number three and the angel who made Apple real — investing $250,000 and writing “The Apple Marketing Philosophy” that still echoes today (empathy, focus, impute). He served as the second CEO (1981–83) and as chairman across two decades, the quiet adult in the room.
John Sculley
Recruited from Pepsi with Jobs’ famous line — “Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or come change the world?” He oversaw huge growth and the desktop-publishing boom, then forced Jobs out in 1985 and bet big on the doomed Newton. Ousted as the company stalled.
Michael Spindler
Nicknamed “The Diesel,” the German engineer inherited a company sliding toward crisis. He licensed Mac clones, slashed costs, and quietly shopped Apple to IBM, Sun and Philips. None of it worked; mounting losses ended his tenure after barely three years.
Gil Amelio
In office only about 500 days, yet he made the single most consequential decision in Apple’s history: buying NeXT for $429 million, which brought Steve Jobs back. Jobs then maneuvered him out within months. A short, pivotal, accidental kingmaker.
Tim Cook
The supply-chain savant who succeeded Jobs and proved the doubters wrong. Under Cook, Apple shipped the Watch, AirPods and Vision Pro, built a vast Services business, championed privacy, and became the first company worth one, two, then three trillion dollars.
Last updated: 2026-06-30