Mike Markkula | |
|---|---|
| Born | Armas Clifford Markkula Jr.[1] (1942-02-11)February 11, 1942 (age 83) |
| Alma mater | University of Southern California (BS,MS) |
| Known for | CEO ofApple Computer, Inc. |
Armas Clifford "Mike"Markkula Jr. (/mɑːrˈkuːlə/; born February 11, 1942)[1] is an American electrical engineer, businessman and investor. He was the originalangel investor, first chairman, and second CEO forApple Computer, Inc., providing critical early funding and managerial support. At the company's incorporation, Markkula owned 26% of Apple, equivalent to each of the shares owned by cofoundersSteve Jobs andSteve Wozniak.[2]
Markkula's great-grandfather, Isak Ferdinand Markkula, was born inSievi, Finland. He and his wife moved to the United States in either 1865[3] or 1883, depending on the source. Mike Markkula's first nameArmas and last nameMarkkula are traditional Finnish names. His first nameArmas means "dear" or "beloved" in the Finnish language.[4]
Markkula earned bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from theUniversity of Southern California.[5]
Markkula made millions fromstock options he earned as a marketing manager forFairchild Semiconductor andIntel, reachingfinancial independence and early retirement at 33.[6] After that, he became a startup consultant and mentored dozens of entrepreneurs, working only every Monday.[7]
Markkula was introduced byRegis McKenna and venture capitalistDon Valentine[6] toSteve Jobs andSteve Wozniak while they were looking for funding to manufacture theApple II personal computer they had developed after having sold some units of their first computer, theApple I. Jobs and Wozniak had previously gone to McKenna and then Valentine, but neither was originally interested in the Apple pair; after meeting with the young and unkempt Jobs, Valentine asked McKenna,"Why did you send me this renegade from the human race?" However, Valentine forwarded their information to Markkula,[8] who proved interested, and came out of retirement to personally work on the opportunity.
With his guidance and funding, Apple ceased to be a partnership between Jobs and Wozniak, and was incorporated as a company on January 3, 1977. Markkula provided Apple with funding of $80,000 - $92,000 personally in addition to securing a $170,000 - $250,000line of credit fromBank of America.[2][8][9] He brought in his friend and former coworkerMichael Scott as the first president and CEO, then replaced Scott with himself from 1981 to 1983 despite having originally promised his wife that he would only stay at Apple for four years,[6] and then later planning to retire again by 1984;[8] during the board meeting to confirm him as the CEO, Markkula received a phone call that his father-in-law and best friend had died.[10]
Markkula served as Apple'schairman of the board from 1985 to 1997.[11][12] In 1996Fortune described him as "the reclusive chairman who has always been the real power at Apple".[13] As chairman Markkula approvedJef Raskin's 1979 plan to start designing what would become theMacintosh, then prevented Jobs from killing the project in favor of his ownLisa.[14][15] In 1985, Markkula tookJohn Sculley's side in a dispute with Jobs, causing the latter to leave the company; he would later help to force Sculley out in 1993.[6]Fortune wrote "Apple CEOs have two things in common: They all get into big trouble; and Markkula always sorts out the mess".[13]
In addition to providing whatThe New York Times later described as "adult supervision" to the younger Jobs and Wozniak, as a trained engineer Markkula also possessed technical skills.[6]Michael Tomczyk recalled being surprised by the technical sophistication of a software question Markkula asked Wozniak.[16] He wrote several early Apple II programs, served as abeta tester for Apple hardware and software, and wrote one of the first three programs available for the unsuccessfulApple III. Wozniak was motivated to design theDisk II floppy disk drive system after Markkula found that a checkbook-balancing program he had written loaded too slowly from adata cassette.[6][17] Markkula retired from Apple after Jobs returned as interim CEO in 1996. He supported Jobs' 1997 return and agreed to step down from Apple's board.[18]
Wozniak, who designed the first two Apple computers, credits Markkula for the success of Apple more than himself.[19]
Jeffrey Nordling portrayed him in the 1999 TNT filmPirates of Silicon Valley.Dermot Mulroney later portrayed him in the 2013 filmJobs.
After he retired from Apple, he went on to work atEchelon Corporation, ACM Aviation, San Jose Jet Center and Rana Creek Habitat Restoration and to endow theMarkkula Center for Applied Ethics atSanta Clara University, where he chaired the board. Markkula was also on the board of trustees of Santa Clara University from 2003 to 2009.[20]
Markkula was an investor in Crowd Technologies, a startup developing a web application called Piqqem that applies thewisdom of crowds to stock market predictions. He is an investor in Scotland-basedLiveCode Ltd.[21]
Markkula owned theRana Creek Ranch from 1982 to 2023. In July 2023, he sold his 14,000-acre Rana Creek Ranch in Carmel Valley (Monterey County) toThe Wildlands Conservancy for $35 million.[22][23]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)| Preceded by | Apple CEO 1981–1983 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by New title | Apple Chairman 1977–1981 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Apple Chairman 1985–1993 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Apple Chairman 1993–1997 | Succeeded by |
| Products |
| ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Services |
| ||||||||||||||||||
| Companies |
| ||||||||||||||||||
| Design andmarketing | |||||||||||||||||||
| Legal issues and labour relations | |||||||||||||||||||
| Related | |||||||||||||||||||
| People |
| ||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
