Hynek Hampl Unlike other companies in the world, Apple had its identity tied to one person - Steve Jobs. He was undoubtedly the driving force behind Apple's journey to the top of the list of the most valuable companies in the world. But Jobs didn't do it all alone. And that's why today we're going to take a look at Apple's top ten employees. Find out what they are currently doing and how far they have come.
Apple's first CEO, Michael Scott, gave Business Insider some insight into the early days, and Steve Wozniak helped the site compile the list, albeit from memory. In the end, it was possible to create a complete list of the first ten employees who worked at Apple.
The numbers of individual employees are not determined according to how they joined the company. When Michael Scott came to Apple, he had to assign numbers to employees in order to facilitate his payroll paperwork.
#10 Gary Martin – Head of Accounting
Martin thought that Apple would not last as a company, but he started working here in 1977 anyway. He stayed with the firm until 1983. He then moved from Apple to Starstruck, a space travel company where Michael Scott was a key employee. (Scott hired Martin for Apple.)
Martin is now a private investor and sits on the board of Canadian tech company LeoNovus.
#9 Sherry Livingston - Michael Scott's right hand
Livingston was Apple's first corporate secretary and she did a lot. She was hired by Michael Scott and also said of her that in the beginning she took care of all the discrepancies and back-end work (rewriting manuals, etc.) for Apple. She recently became a grandmother and we're not sure if (or where) she works.
#8 Chris Espinoza – Part time worker and high school student at the time
Espinoza started working at Apple as a temp at the age of 14, while still in high school. And it is with Apple even now! On your personal site shared how he got to the number 8. Chris was at school when Michael "Scotty" Scott handed out the numbers. He therefore arrived a bit later and ended up with number 8.
#7 Michael “Scotty” Scott – Apple's first CEO
Scott told Business Insider that he got the number 7 as a joke. It was supposed to be a reference to the famous James Bond movie hero, agent 007. Scotty, as he was nicknamed, picked the numbers for all the employees and managed the entire company. Mike Markkula brought him in as director and installed him in the position.
Scott is currently interested in precious stones. He works on a device you may recognize from Star Trek called a "tricoder". This device is intended to help people identify rocks in the forest and determine what kind of rock it is.
#6 Randy Wigginton – Programmer
Randy's main job was rewriting BASIC so that it works properly with the computer Apple II, Michael Scott revealed in an interview. Wigginton ended up working for several major tech firms—eBay, Google, Chegg. He is currently working on a well-known startup Square, which focuses on mobile payments.
#5 Rod Holt – an important person in the development of the Apple II computer
A respected designer, Holt was initially skeptical about working at Apple. Fortunately (according to him), however, Steve Jobs got in touch with him and convinced him to take the job. He was just a communist who helped build the source for the computer Apple II.
Michael Scott said in an interview: "One thing that Holt has to his credit is that he built a switching power supply that allowed us to build a very light computer compared to other manufacturers that used transformers."
According to his words, Holt was fired after six years by Apple's new management.
#4 Bill Fernandez – First employee after Jobs and Wozniak
Fernandez first met Jobs in Cupertino at the high school where Jobs was a freshman. Fernandez was also a neighbor and friend of Steve Wozniak. When the two Steves founded Apple, they hired Fernandez as their first employee. He stayed with Apple until 1993, when he left to work for Ingers, a database company. He currently has his own design firm and works on user interfaces.
#3 Mike Markkula - Financial support of Apple
Markkula was an important person in the founding of Apple, as were Jobs and Wozniak. He invested $250 in the start-up company in exchange for a 30% stake in the company. He also helped lead the company, create a business plan and hire the first CEO. He insisted that Wozniak join Apple. Woz didn't want to give up his warm seat at Hewlett-Packard.
Markkula was one of Intel's first employees and became a millionaire before he was 30 and the company went public. According to the book "Return to the Little Kingdom", his investment in Apple was less than 10% of his fortune at the time.
He stayed at Apple until 1997, overseeing the firing and rehiring of Jobs. As soon as Jobs returned, Markkula left Apple. He has since invested money in several startups and donated money to Santa Clara College for the "Markkul Center for Applied Ethics".
#2 Steve Jobs – Founder of the company and number 2 just to piss him off
Why was Jobs employee number 2 and not employee number 1? Michael Scott says: "I know I didn't put Jobs at #1 because I thought it would be too many."
#1 Steve Wozniak – The Tech Expert
Woz almost never worked at Apple. He had an offer from Hewlett-Packard in Oregon and was considering accepting it. However, he never thought that Apple would not last and go bankrupt (as many think). While some people turned down their first offers of collaboration because they thought that Apple as a company would not be good enough, it was different for Wozniak. He liked his job and his company. He would easily design all Apple products in a year in his spare time and wanted to continue like this, but Markkula didn't want to admit it. Woz says: "I had to think long and hard about who I am. In the end, I came to the conclusion that I could work at Apple as an engineer while overcoming the fear of running my own company.”
However, the book "Return to the Little Kingdom" says that Wozniak told his parents with absolute certainty that Apple's sponsor would lose all his money. Which was without a doubt a sign of uncertainty and little faith in Apple.
#Bonus: Ronald Wayne - sold his stake in the company for $1
Ronald Wayne was an original partner in Apple along with Jobs and Wozniak, but decided that business wasn't for him. And so he left. Markkula bought out his stake in the company in 1977 for a ridiculous $1. Today, Wayne must definitely regret it.
switching power supply - it is correctly "switched"...
great article, one really likes to read this!
It's a shame that most of them only have a brief mention of who they are and what they did and not what they are currently doing. An unfavorable article for Apple fans.
Ron Wayne shot it in '97? It's not...
…..bought out his stake in the company in 1997 for a ridiculous $1. …..
I think it was a 20 year drive….
According to all kinds of interviews, Wayne never regretted and does not regret selling his share.
He will not interpret it publicly…
Jobs was digit 0 if I'm not mistaken...
The order given in the article is correct. Naturally, Jobs wanted to be ahead of Wozniak, but due to the payment of wages, contact with the bank, it was not possible to use the label: "employee 0".
Steve Wozniak looks like Michal Kolesa in old photos
it's a shame he doesn't have fb anymore, as we used to joke on his profile... btw: you probably didn't shoot him windows 7 for his new PC for selling the apartment, did you? :D
Ronald Wayne will regret it even after his death :D