Mike Markkula.html



Armas Clifford "Mike" Markkula Jr. (born 1942) is the co-founder of Apple Computer. He was an angel investor who provided early critical funding for Apple. After his stint there, he continued on to found Echelon Corporation, ACM Aviation, San Jose Jet Center and Rana Creek Habitat Restoration and to endow the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, where he now chairs the Board of Trustees.

Markkula made millions on stock options he acquired as a marketing manager for Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel, and retired at 32. He was lured out of retirement after visiting Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs in their garage. In 1977, Markkula brought his business expertise along with US$91,000 and guaranteed a bank line of credit of $250,000 and became a one-third owner of Apple. He also brought in Apple's first CEO, Michael Scott, then took the job himself from 1981 to 1983. Markkula served as chairman from 1985 until 1997, when a new board was formed after Jobs returned to the company. Wozniak, who virtually single-handedly created the first two Apple computers, credits Markkula for the success of Apple more than himself. ¹

Markkula is an alumnus of the University of Southern California.² Markkula's family is from Finland.

Markkula is an investor in Crowd Technologies, a startup developing a web application called Piqqem that applies the wisdom of crowds to stock market predictions.

Notes

1. ^ Jason Zasky, "The Failure Interview: Apple Computer Co-Founder Steve Wozniak", Failure Magazine, July 2000.
2. ^ Innovation at USC > Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Southern California Stevens Institute for Innovation.