Mike Markkula American entrepreneur Date of Birth: 11.02.1942 Country: USA

1. Biography of Mike Markkula
2. Early Life and Education
3. Early Career
4. Role at Apple
5. Contributions and Later Career
6. Later Investments and Portrayals

Biography of Mike Markkula

Mike Markkula is an American entrepreneur and the second CEO of Apple Computer, Inc. He provided significant managerial support and financial backing to the company, which has now become the most successful in the United States. Markkula was introduced to Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak when they were seeking funding to create the Apple II computer after selling a few units of their first product, the Apple I.

Early Life and Education

Armas Clifford Markkula Jr. was born on February 11, 1942, in Los Angeles, California, USA. His great-grandfather, Isaac Ferdinand Markkula, was born in Sievi, Finland. Isaac and his wife immigrated to the United States in 1865 or 1883, according to various sources. The name Armas and the surname Markkula are purely Finnish, with "Armas" meaning "dear" or "beloved" in Finnish. Markkula earned bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California.

Early Career

Markkula made millions through stock options while working as a marketing manager at Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel. He retired at the age of 32 until he was convinced by Steve Jobs to invest in Apple II and the personal computer industry as a whole. In 1977, Markkula brought his accumulated business experience to Apple, providing $250,000 in investments and loans ($80,000 in investments and $170,000 as a loan). He became the owner of one-third of Apple and the third-largest employee in the company. Steve Wozniak, who helped create the first two Apple computers, considered Markkula's contributions to the company more significant than his own.

Role at Apple

Markkula helped Apple secure credit and venture capital and convinced Michael Scott to become the first CEO of Apple Computer. He joined Apple and initially planned to stay from 1981 to 1983, promising his wife to retire in 1984. However, he served as the chairman of the company from 1985 until 1997 when a new board was formed after Jobs' return to Apple. As chairman, Markkula approved Jeff Raskin's plan to launch the Macintosh computer in 1979. In 1985, he sided with businessman John Sculley in a dispute with Jobs, who later left the company. In 1993, Markkula helped remove Sculley from his position.

Contributions and Later Career

In addition to overseeing Jobs and Wozniak, Markkula used his engineering background to contribute to the technical aspects of the company. He wrote several early programs for Apple II, participated in beta testing hardware and software at Apple, and wrote one of the first three programs suitable for the Apple III computer. After leaving Apple in 1996 when Jobs returned as interim CEO, Markkula supported Jobs' return. He became involved in founding several companies, including Echelon Corporation, ACM Aviation, San Jose Jet Center, and Rana Creek Habitat Restoration. He also established the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, where he currently serves on the board.

Later Investments and Portrayals

Markkula is an investor in Crowd Technologies, a startup developing a web application called "Piqqem" that uses crowd wisdom to predict stock market behavior. He also invests in the company RunRev. Markkula was portrayed by actor Jeffrey Nordling in the 1999 TV drama "Pirates of Silicon Valley" and appeared in the documentary film "Something Ventured" in 2011, discussing his work at Apple. In the biographical film "jOBS" released in 2013, Dermot Mulroney portrayed Markkula.