Mike Markkula Mentors Early Apple
Steve Jobs and Mike Markkula with a cheque symbolising his investment in Apple, 1977
- Name
- Mike Markkula
- Life
- born 1942 (age 81 or 82)
- Relationship to Steve
- Mentor, Colleague and Board member at Apple
- Short Bio
A millionaire retiree from Intel, Mike Markkula was an angel investor in Apple, actually the first investor in the company, who put $250k of his own money in the company in 1977 (roughly equivalent to $1 million today). Jobs later convinced him to actually join the company instead of just funding it. Markkula believed in Steve Jobs's and Woz's idea of a personal computer even before they did —he claimed Apple would be a Fortune 500 company in two years. After a 2-year interim as CEO, Mike stayed on Apple's board, and approved of Steve's departure in 1985. He left when Steve asked him to resign along with the rest of the board in 1997.
- Read more
- Wikipedia