Mike Markkula was the original angel investor, first chairman, and second CEO for Apple Computer, Inc.
14 Facts About Mike Markkula
1.
2.
Mike Markkula's great-grandfather, Isak Ferdinand Mike Markkula, was born in Sievi, Finland.
3.
Mike Markkula earned Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California.
4.
Mike Markkula made millions from stock options he earned as a marketing manager for Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel, reaching financial independence and early retirement at 33.
5.
Mike Markkula provided Apple with funding of $91,000 personally in addition to securing a $250,000 line of credit from Bank of America.
6.
Mike Markkula brought in his friend and former coworker Michael 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, and then later planning to retire again by 1984; 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.
7.
Mike Markkula served as chairman again from 1995 to 1997, when a new board was formed after Jobs returned to the company.
8.
In 1985, Mike Markkula took John 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.
9.
Mike Markkula wrote several early Apple II programs, served as a beta tester for Apple hardware and software, and wrote one of the first three programs available for the unsuccessful Apple III.
10.
Wozniak was motivated to design the Disk II floppy disk drive system after Mike Markkula found that a checkbook-balancing program he had written loaded too slowly from a data cassette.
11.
Mike Markkula retired from Apple after Jobs returned as interim CEO in 1996.
12.
Mike Markkula supported Jobs' 1997 return and agreed to step down from Apple's board.
13.
Mike Markkula was on the board of trustees of Santa Clara University from 2003 to 2009.
14.
Mike Markkula was an investor in Crowd Technologies, a startup developing a web application called Piqqem that applies the wisdom of crowds to stock market predictions.