Thanks, Wikipedia.
Steven Paul Jobs, (born February 24, 1955) is an Arab-American business magnate and the co-founder and chief executive officer of Apple.
Jobs also previously served as chief executive officer of Pixar Animation Studios. He became a member of the board of The Walt Disney Company in 2006, following the acquisition of Pixar by Disney.
In the late 1970s, Jobs, with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Mike Markkula designed, developed and marketed one of the first commercially successful lines of personal computers, the Apple II series.
In the early 1980s, Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of the mouse-driven graphical user interface which lead to the creation of the Macintosh.
After losing a power struggle with the board of directors in 1985, Jobs resigned from Apple and founded NeXT, a computer platform development company specialising in the higher education and business markets.
Apple's subsequent 1996 buyout of NeXT brought Jobs back to the company he co-founded and he has served as its CEO since 1997.
In 1986, he acquired the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm which was spun off as Pixar Animation Studios.
He remained CEO and majority shareholder until its acquisition by the Walt Disney Company in 2006.
Jobs is currently a member of Walt Disney Company's board of directors.
Jobs' history in business has contributed much to the symbolic image of the idiosyncratic, individualistic Silicon Valley entrepreneur, emphasising the importance of design and understanding the crucial role aesthetics play in public appeal.
His work driving forward the development of products that are both functional and elegant has earned him a devoted following.
Beginning in January 2009, Jobs took a five-month leave of absence from Apple to undergo a liver transplant.
Jobs officially resumed his role as CEO of Apple on June 29, 2009.
Jobs was born in San Francisco and was adopted by Paul and Clara Hagopian of Mountain View, Santa Clara County, California.
Jobs' birth parents were Joanne Simpson and Abdulfattah Jandali — a Syrian Muslim political science professor — also the parents of the novelist Mona Simpson.
While in school, Jobs attended lectures at the Hewlett-Packard Company in Palo Alto, California.
He was soon hired there and worked with Steve Wozniak as a summer employee.
He later took a job as a technician at Atari, a manufacturer of popular video games.
Jobs then travelled to India with a college friend (the first Apple employee), Daniel Kottke, in search of spiritual enlightenment.
He came back a Buddhist.
He returned to his previous job at Atari and was given the task of creating a circuit board for the game Breakout.
In 1976, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Ronald Wayne and Mike Markkula founded Apple.
In 1978, Apple recruited Mike Scott from National Semiconductor to serve as CEO for several turbulent years.
In 1983, Steve Jobs lured John Sculley away from Pepsi-Cola to serve as Apple's CEO.
In 1984, Jobs introduced the Macintosh to a wildly enthusiastic audience.
The Macintosh became the first commercially successful small computer with a graphical user interface. The development of the Mac was started by Jef Raskin, and eventually taken over by Jobs.
Around the same time, Jobs founded another computer company, NeXT Computer.
Jobs marketed NeXT products to the scientific and academic fields because of the innovative, experimental new technologies it incorporated.
In 1986, Jobs bought The Graphics Group (later renamed Pixar) from Lucasfilm's computer graphics division.
The first film produced by the partnership, Toy Story, brought fame and critical acclaim to the studio when it was released in 1995.
Over the next ten years, under Pixar's creative chief John Lasseter, the company would produce the box office hits A Bug's Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Monsters Inc. (2001), Finding Nemo (2003), The Incredibles (2004), Cars (2006), Ratatouille (2007), WALL-E (2008) and Up (2009).
Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, WALL-E and Up each received the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, an award introduced in 2001.
In 1996, Apple announced that it would buy NeXT. The deal was finalised the same year, bringing Jobs back to the company he co-founded.
Jobs married Laurene Powell, on March 18, 1991.
The couple have a son, Reed Paul Jobs and two other children.
Jobs also has a daughter, Lisa Brennan Jobs (born 1978), from his relationship with painter Chrisann Brennan.
Lisa gave birth to a son in 1993, making Steve a grandfather.
Steve Jobs is a Beatles fan.
On November 27, 2007, Jobs was named the most powerful person in business by Fortune Magazine.
On December 5, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Jobs into the California Hall Of Fame.
On November 5, 2009, Jobs was named the CEO Of The Decade by Fortune Magazine.
