Gilbert Frank Amelio (born March 1, 1943, in New York City) is an American technology executive. He grew up in Miami, Florida and received a bachelor's degree, master's degree, and Ph.D. in physics from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Amelio worked at Bell Labs, Fairchild Semiconductor, and the semiconductor division of Rockwell International but is best remembered as a former CEO of National Semiconductor and Apple. Amelio was CEO of National Semiconductor from May 27, 1991, to February 2, 1996. During his tenure at National Semiconductor, Amelio cut costs and returned the company to profitability.
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At Bell Labs in 1970, Amelio was on the team that demonstrated the first working charge-coupled device (CCD).[1] He moved to Fairchild Semiconductor in 1971, where he led the development of the first commercial CCD image sensors in the early 1970s, and in 1977 became head of the MOS division.
Amelio was CEO of National Semiconductor from 1991 to 1995.
In 1994 Amelio joined the Board of Directors of Apple. After his resignation from National Semiconductor Amelio became Apple CEO on February 2, 1996, succeeding Michael Spindler. His salary was a reported $990,000 plus bonuses and a $5 million loan. He also received approximately $100,000 for the use of his business jet by Apple the previous year according to the section "Certain Transactions" in the Apple Proxy Statement for 1996.
Amelio cited several problems at Apple including a shortage of cash and liquidity, low-quality products, lack of a viable operating system strategy, undisciplined corporate culture, and fragmentation in trying to do too much and in too many directions. To address these problems Amelio cut costs, reduced Apple's work force by one third, discontinued the Copland operating system project, and oversaw the development of Mac OS 8.
To replace Copland and fulfill the need for a next generation operating system Amelio started negotiations to buy BeOS from Be Inc. but negotiations stalled when Be CEO Jean-Louis Gassée demanded $275 million; Apple was unwilling to offer more than $200 million. In November 1996 Amelio started discussions with Steve Jobs' NeXT, and bought the company on February 4, 1997, for $429 million.
During Amelio's tenure Apple's stock continued to slump and hit a 12-year low in Q2 1997 that was at least partially caused by a single sale of 1.5 million shares of Apple stock on June 26 by an anonymous party who was later confirmed to be Steve Jobs.[2] Apple lost another $708 million; however, they did report a $25 million dollar profit prior to Amelio leaving. Apple had a multi-billion dollar loss the year before. On the July 4, 1997 weekend, Jobs convinced the directors to oust Amelio in a boardroom coup; Amelio submitted his resignation less than a week later; and Jobs then became interim CEO on September 16. In 1997 Amelio said in an interview with technology journalist Gina Smith, who asked him how Apple was doing:
"You know, Gina, Apple is like a ship, that ship is loaded with treasure, but there's a hole in the ship. And my job is to get everyone to row in the same direction."[3][4]
Since 1998 Amelio has been a venture capitalist focusing on early-stage startups. He is currently Senior Partner at Sienna Ventures in Sausalito, California, and CEO of Acquicor, a company he co-founded with ex-Apple CTO Ellen Hancock and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Acquicor completed the acquisition of Jazz Semiconductor in Newport Beach, California in early 2007 and has since been granted SEC approval.
In February 2001 Amelio became CEO of Advanced Communications Technologies (ADC). ADC is the United States arm of an Australian firm that has developed a product for the wireless communications industry called SpectruCell. SpectruCell supports multiple protocols and is software upgradeable, which has been characterised as a big boon to the cell phone market.[5]
Amelio is a former director and chairman of the Semiconductor Industry Association. Since 1996 has been an advisor to the Malaysia Multimedia Super Corridor and to Malaysia's Prime Minister. Amelio is a current or past director of AT&T Inc., Pacific Telesis, Chiron Corporation, Sematech, the Georgia Tech Advisory Board (as chairman) and the American Film Institute. In June 2003 he was named Chairman of the Board of Ripcord Networks; where he joined Steve Wozniak, Ellen Hancock, and other Apple alumni. In October 2005 Amelio joined the Board of Advisors to Vanguard PAC (now TheVanguard.Org).[6] Gil Amelio is on the advisory board of tech start-up Intelicloud.
Amelio is an IEEE Fellow. He has been awarded 16 patents. He is the author of three books: An American Imperative (1993), Profit from Experience (1995) and On the Firing Line: My 500 Days at Apple (1998), the latter two of which were business bestsellers.
| Preceded by Michael Spindler |
Apple CEO 1996–1997 |
Succeeded by Steve Jobs |
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