Gil Amelio

Gilbert Frank Amelio earned a bachelor's, master's and doctorate in physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He built a career at Bell Labs, where he contributed to the early work on charge-coupled devices, and later rose through Fairchild, Rockwell and finally National Semiconductor, which he led as CEO from 1991. He joined Apple's board in 1994.

Apple chose him as CEO in February 1996, when the company was losing money and struggling with an ageing operating system. Amelio cut jobs and product lines, reorganized the company, and looked for a modern operating system to replace the delayed Copland project. After considering outside options, Apple agreed in December 1996 to buy NeXT for roughly 400 million dollars, a deal completed in February 1997 that brought NeXTSTEP technology and Steve Jobs back into the company.

Financial results remained poor, and the board lost confidence in him after the company reported a large loss. Amelio resigned in July 1997 after about 500 days in the job, and Jobs took over as interim CEO. He later co-founded Acquicor and wrote the book On the Firing Line: My 500 Days at Apple. The NeXT purchase, which he led, is generally seen as the lasting accomplishment of his tenure.