Steve Jobs: Co-founder of Apple and Former CEO
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Steve Jobs co-founded Apple in 1976, was forced out in 1985, built NeXT and bought Pixar, then returned as CEO in 1997 and led Apple until his resignation in 2011.
About Steve Jobs: Co-founder of Apple and Former CEO
Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 to October 5, 2011) was an American businessman and investor and a pioneer of the personal computer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s. He co-founded Apple Inc. with his early business partner Steve Wozniak as Apple Computer Company in 1976. After Apple's board fired him in 1985 he founded NeXT the same year and purchased Pixar in 1986, becoming its chairman and majority shareholder until 2007. He returned to Apple in 1997 as CEO and was closely involved in creating and promoting many of its most influential products until he resigned in 2011. Jobs was born in San Francisco in 1955 and adopted shortly afterward. He attended Reed College in 1972 but withdrew that same year, and in 1974 traveled through India seeking enlightenment before later studying Zen Buddhism. He and Wozniak co-founded Apple in 1976 to develop and sell Wozniak's Apple I, and a year later the Apple II, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputers, brought them fame and wealth. In 1979 Jobs saw the commercial potential of the mouse-driven, graphical Xerox Alto, which led to the largely unsuccessful Apple Lisa in 1983 and then the breakthrough Macintosh 128K in 1984, the first mass-produced computer with a graphical user interface. The Macintosh, together with the Apple LaserWriter, launched the desktop publishing industry in 1985. That year Jobs left Apple after a long power struggle with the board and then-CEO John Sculley, and set out on the NeXT and Pixar chapters that ended with his return to Apple. Sources: English Wikipedia (Steve Jobs, accessed September 2026).
Basic Information
Co-founder and former CEO, Apple; founder, NeXT; chairman, Pixar (1955-2011)
Company Details
Apple Inc. / NeXT / Pixar
Consumer Electronics, Software, Animation