Mike Markkula

Armas Clifford "Mike" Markkula Jr. (born 1942) is an American entrepreneur who was an angel investor who provided early critical funding for Apple. He was introduced to Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak when they were looking for funding to manufacture the Apple II personal computer they had developed, after having successfully sold some units of the first version of this computer, the Apple I. With this funding and his guidance, Apple ceased to be a partnership and was incorporated as a company. After his stint there, he continued on to found Echelon Corporation, ACM Aviation, San Jose Jet Center and Rana Creek Habitat Restoration and to endow the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, where he now chairs the Board of Trustees.

Markkula made millions on stock options he acquired as a marketing manager for Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel, and retired at 32. He was lured out of retirement after Steve Jobs, who was referred to him by Don Valentine, a venture capitalist who was not interested in funding Apple, visited him and convinced him of the market for the Apple II and personal computers in general. In 1977, Markkula brought his business expertise along with US$250,000 ($80,000 as an equity investment in the company and $170,000 as a loan) and became a one-third owner of Apple and employee number 3.^[1] He also brought in Apple's first president, Michael Scott, then took the job himself from 1981 to 1983. Markkula served as chairman from 1985 until 1997, when a new board was formed after Jobs returned to the company. Wozniak, who single-handedly created the first two Apple computers, credits Markkula for the success of Apple more than himself. ^[2]

Markkula is an alumnus of the University of Southern California.^[3] Markkula's family is from Finland.

Markkula is an investor in Crowd Technologies, a startup developing a web application called Piqqem that applies the wisdom of crowds to stock market predictions.

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