The Other Apple CEO Steve Wozniak Is Thankful For (Hint: It's Not Steve Jobs)

Apple Inc. AAPL co-founder Steve Wozniak took to Twitter to “thank” a former CEO of the company — and no, he wasn’t referring to Steve Jobs. 

What Happened: On Wednesday, Wozniak asked his more than 670.1K followers on Twitter, “Would you believe 2 Apple founders dining together?”

See Also: Inside the World of Phone Phreaking: The Untold Story of Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs’ Secret Project

He then went on to talk about Armas Clifford “Mike” Markkula Junior — the first angel investor of Apple Computer Inc. and the second CEO of the company. Mike invested $250K for one-third of Apple in 1977. 

In the tweet, Wozniak said that many people, including himself, “thank” Mike for what he has done for them. “That’s more than wealth.” 

In a 1997 report, The New York Times called Mike the “third and perhaps least understood co-founder of Apple Computer Inc.” 

The same year, Mike left the company as vice chairman in a boardroom overhaul after spending 20 years. Apple was teetering on bankruptcy at that time, having lost $1.7 billion in four years. 

Mike was 12 years older than Jobs and a former Intel product-marketing manager who had opted to retire early after making some small fortune on his stock options. 

However, he was more than just a “president” and “camp counselor” as he was also a hands-on hacker who instructed Wozniak to design the floppy disk driver for the Apple II. 

He also wrote several early software programs and freely distributed them under the pen name Johnny Appleseed, the report noted. 

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