Steve Jobs
Co-founder and CEO of Apple Inc and Pixar
“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower”
He was born on February 24, 1955 in San Francisco and adopted by a California couple. In 1972, Jobs graduated from Homestead High School in Cupertino, he dropped out from college and teamed up with Steve Wozniak in 1976 to sell PC’s assembled in Jobs’ family garage. That was the start of Apple Computers Co., which brought revolution to the computing industry and made Steve Jobs a multimillionaire before he was 30 years old. He was forced to resign from the company in 1985 and started the NeXT Corporation, but returned to Apple in 1996 when Apple bought NeXT. Jobs became Apple’s CEO and gave the world three iconic products like the colorful iMac computer, the iPod music player and the iPhone. Jobs also started Pixar Inc., the animation company who produced animated movies like Toy Story and Incredibles. In 2006, the Walt Disney Co. purchased Pixar for $7.4 billion in stock; which made Jobs the single largest individual shareholder in Disney stock.
Steve was awarded the National Medal of Technology by President Reagan in 1985, the Jefferson Award for Public Service in 1987, and was named Entrepreneur of the Decade in 1989 by Inc. Magazine. Steve Jobs received CA Hall of Fame award by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2007. One of Time Magazine’s 2008 top 25 most influential people on the web.
Steve Jobs is one amongst the great leaders in the world to build a corporate culture carrying the vision and ambitions of its leader. In 1998, Jobs was quoted by Fortune magazine as saying, “Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.”