Steve Jobs

Steven Paul "Steve" Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011[2][3]) 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.[4] He was the largest shareholder at Disney[5] and a member of Disney's Board of Directors. He was seen as a leading figure in both the computer and entertainment industries.[6] 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.

Steven Paul Jobs was born on February 24, 1955 in San Francisco, California, U.S.,[7] 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. He also took part in ballet as a child.

Steve was a Silicon Valley businessman most famous for his work with the company Apple Computer Inc, starting 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, still at Apple, Jobs was one of the first to see the potential of using a mouse to control things on a computer screen.[8]

In 1985, after differences of opinion about what the company should focus on, Apple's Board of Directors fired Jobs from his position with the company. He then started NeXT, a computer platform development company which dealt with higher education and business markets.

In 1986, Jobs bought a computer animation studio from film director George Lucas called Pixar.[9] Jobs sold Pixar to Disney in 2006, and gained a seat on the Disney board of directors. Pixar went on to make numerous hugely successful films, such as 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 80s.

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

Due to increasing health problems, Jobs retired as CEO of Apple on August 24, 2011,[10][11][12][13] and suggested Tim Cook as his successor. However, Jobs continued as the chairman of the Apple Inc.'s Board of Directors.[14][15]

Jobs had health problems for the last few years and had a liver transplant. When he died of cardiac arrest caused by pancreatitis and related to type 1 diabetes in 2011 in Palo Alto, California, he was worth $8.3 billion (£5.1 billion).[9]

Jobs had four children. His two daughters, Erin Siena Jobs and Eve Jobs, and a son, Reed Paul Jobs, with his wife, Laurene Powell; and 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.[16] Jobs also once said that he voted for Ronald Reagan.[17]

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.