Steve Jobs

**Steven Paul "Steve" Jobs** (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, investor, and co-founder and CEO of Apple Inc. He was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Pixar Animation Studios until it was bought by The Walt Disney Company. He was the largest shareholder at Disney and a member of Disney's Board of Directors.
He was seen as a leading figure in both the computer and entertainment industries. In August 2011, Jobs resigned, and was appointed Chairman of Apple. He served in that position until he died, at the age of 56, on October 5, 2011 from complications of pancreatitis related to type 1 diabetes and metastatic insulinoma. Steve Jobs had type 1 diabetes as a child and had problems with insulin when he died.

### Early life and education

Steven Paul Jobs was born on February 24, 1955 in San Francisco, California, U.S., Steve Jobs' mother, Joanne Schieble was American of German and Swiss descent; his father, Abdulfattah "John" Jandali was a Syrian. They wanted Steve to be adopted by college graduates, that was not the case. He was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs who promised Steve would go to college. Jobs went to Reed College for a semester and then dropped out. He spent 18 more months dropping in on more creative classes.

### Founding of Apple Inc.

Jobs was a Silicon Valley businessman. He was most famous for his work with the company Apple Computer Inc, The company started with the release of the Apple I in 1976.

Together with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Jobs helped make the idea of the personal computer popular in the late 1970s. In the early 1980s, while still at Apple, Jobs was one of the first people to see the potential of using a mouse to control things on a computer screen.

### Out of Apple

In 1985, Jobs and the other people at Apple had differences of opinion about what the company should focus on, which led to Apple's Board of Directors firing Jobs from his position with the company. He then started NeXT, a computer platform development company. It dealt with higher education and business markets.

In 1986, Jobs bought the computer animation studio Pixar from movie director George Lucas. Jobs sold Pixar to Disney in 2006. He also became a member of the Disney board of directors. Pixar went on to make many largely successful movies. These included _Toy Story_ (1995), _Monsters, Inc._ (2001) and _Cars_ (2006). Jobs made more money with Pixar than he did while he was with Apple in the 1970s and 1980s.

### Return to Apple, introduction of new products and retirement

Apple's 1997 buyout of NeXT brought Jobs back to the company he co-founded. He worked as the Chief Executive Officer of Apple and was paid $1 million (£600,000) per year. He concentrated on making the company profitable again. He cancelled a few unprofitable projects. Jobs was a force behind the creation of the iPod, released in 2001; the iPhone, released in 2007; and the iPad, released in 2010.

Jobs retired as CEO of Apple on August 24, 2011 because of health problems. He suggested Tim Cook as his successor. Jobs continued as the chairman of the Apple Inc.'s Board of Directors.

### Personal life

Jobs had health problems for the last few years of his life. He had a liver transplant. He died of cardiac arrest caused by pancreatitis and related to type 1 diabetes in 2011 at his home in Palo Alto, California. He was worth $8.3 billion (£5.1 billion) when he died.

He had four children. He had two daughters, Erin Siena Jobs and Eve Jobs, and a son, Reed Paul Jobs, with his wife, Laurene Powell. He also had a daughter Lisa Brennan Jobs while in a previous relationship with Chrisann Brennan.

He was a Democrat and a supporter of Barack Obama, even though, as the owner of a multinational corporation, he took many views of business-friendly Republicans. Jobs also once said that he voted for Ronald Reagan.

## In popular culture

He has been played by American actor Ashton Kutcher in the 2013 biopic movie _Jobs_ and by German-born Irish actor Michael Fassbender in the 2015 movie _Steve Jobs._

## Related pages

- Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft
- Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook
- Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon

## Other websites

- YouTube video of first Jobs' Macworld keynote in 1997, when he returned to Apple, where he announced partnership with Microsoft.
- YouTube video of Jobs' commencement address at Stanford University, June 12, 2005.
- Steve Jobs at NNDB

### Interviews

- _Rolling Stone_, Steve Jobs: The Rolling Stone Interview—December 3, 2003
- _BusinessWeek_, The Seed of Apple's Innovation—October 12, 2005
- _Fortune_, How Big Can Apple Get?—February 21, 2005
- ‘Good for the Soul’—_Newsweek_, October 15, 2006

## Infobox (person)

- **name**: Steve Jobs
- **image**: Steve Jobs Headshot 2010-CROP (cropped 2).jpg
- **caption**: Jobs holding iPhone 4 in 2010
- **birth name**: Steven Paul Jobs
- **birth place**: San Francisco, California, U.S.
- **death place**: Palo Alto, California, U.S.
- **death cause**: cardiac arrest caused by pancreatic cancer  related to type 1 diabetes and metastatic insulinoma
- **alma mater**: Reed College
- **known for**: Pioneer of the Microcomputer revolution, personal computer revolution with Steve Wozniak
- **children**: 4
- **relatives**: Mona Simpson
- **partner**: Chrisann Brennan
- **signature**: Steve Jobs signature.svg