Michael Scott (Apple)

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Michael "Scotty" Scott (born 1943) was the first CEO of Apple from February 1977 to March 1981. Formerly director of manufacturing at National Semiconductor, Scott was persuaded by Mike Markkula to take the CEO position at Apple, as the co-founders (Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak) were both seen as insufficiently experienced for the job at the time.

Attempting to set an example for all businesses, in 1979 Scott declared there would be no typewriters at Apple. In 1979 and 1980, Jef Raskin's Macintosh project was a four-person research effort. It wasn't considered important within Apple, and was almost cancelled a couple of times. When Apple had another major reorganization in the fall of 1980, it was terminated again, but Jef pleaded with Scott and Markkula for more time, and was granted three more months to show that he was really onto something.^[1]

On February 25, 1981, the day known as Black Wednesday, Scott fired 40 Apple employees personally, including half of the Apple II team, in a belief that they were redundant. Later in the afternoon he assembled the remaining employees with a keg of beer and explained the firings by stating, "I used to say that when being CEO at Apple wasn’t fun anymore, I’d quit. But now I’ve changed my mind—when it isn’t fun any more, I’ll fire people until it’s fun again." ^[2]

Following this abrupt event, he was moved to vice chairman, a title with little power, and Mike Markkula, the man who had hired Scott, replaced him.

Scott left Apple officially on July 10, 1981; stating in his resignation letter:^[3]

“

So I am having a new learning experience, something I’ve never done before. I quit, not resign to join a new company or retire for personal reasons…This is not done for those who fear my opinions and style, but for the loyal ones who may be given false hope.

Yours. Michael, Private Citizen

”

From 1983 to 1988, Scott led Starstruck, a private firm that attempted to create a sea-based satellite-launching rocket. He also began supporting non-profit organizations, such as the Seattle Opera and the California Institute of Technology in their efforts to apply personal computers to their needs. ^[4]

Scott has since become an expert on colored gemstones, having written a book on them and assembled a collection that has been exhibited at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana. He also sponsored Rruff, a project creating a complete set of high-quality spectral data from well-characterized minerals. ^[5]