The top 50 people who shaped Apple, ranked
April 1 marks Apple’s 50th anniversary, a milestone it couldn’t reach without the help of some very talented people. So we decided to put together a list of the 50 people who made Apple the company it is today. Some worked there for just a year or two; others for almost the entire half-century, while others never actually worked for the company at all. But all influenced Apple’s journey in some profound way.
This is all, of course, deeply subjective. It is very unlikely that every reader will agree with the author’s selections, far less with his rankings. Which is fine, we welcome the conversation. Our only rule is that if you complain about someone’s exclusion, tell us who you would cut to make room.
The list is presented in reverse order and will be expanded with 10 new names each day across this week. Who do you think will make the top 10? Drop us a message on Bluesky or Threads.
50. Katie Cotton
Apple
PR legend Katie Cotton joined Apple in 1996, shortly before the return of Steve Jobs, and worked closely with him for the next 15 years. For better or worse, she was instrumental in shaping the company’s communications strategy and famous culture of secrecy, fiercely controlling Apple’s portrayal in the press. As we wrote upon her retirement in 2014, she “largely turned public relations on its head.” Cotton sadly passed away in 2023, but like Jobs himself, her legacy lives on in Apple Park.
49. Al Gore
Kleiner Perkins
The former vice president of the United States is better known, of course, for his political career and climate advocacy. But Al Gore has made a small mark on Apple’s history too: After his failed bid to become president of the United States, he joined Apple’s Board of Directors. “Al brings an incredible wealth of knowledge and wisdom to Apple from having helped run the largest organization in the world: the United States government,” Jobs said at the time of his election. No, not that election.
48. Michael Spindler
During its 50 years, Apple has had seven full-time CEOs. Six of them are in this list. (Michael Scott, who was more memorable for the number of people he fired than the new products he oversaw, misses out.) Michael Spindler, who ran things from 1993 to 1996, is our next lowest-ranked CEO. His era wasn’t exactly a golden one, but he deserves recognition for the momentous launch of the first PowerPC Macs on his watch, as well as bold failures such as the clone licensing program. Spindler also fired a bunch of people and tried to merge with IBM, but nobody’s perfect.
47. Bill Gates
Microsoft
Apple fans are mainly familiar with Bill Gates as the guy trying to get everyone to run Microsoft DOS or Windows instead of Mac OS through the 1980s and 1990s. But it’s important to remember that Apple probably wouldn’t have survived the latter decade without Microsoft’s $150 million investment (and its commitment to keep developing Office for the Mac) in 1997, and it was Gates who made that call. This felt like a Faustian bargain, but unusually for those types of stories, everything worked out OK in the end.
46. Bob Belleville
Folklore.org
Jobs famously recruited John Sculley from PepsiCo by asking him if he wanted to sell sugared water for the rest of his life. Bob Belleville, working at the time for Xerox, reportedly got the even less flattering line “Everything you’ve ever done in your life is shit, so why don’t you come work for me?” Perhaps surprisingly, this worked, and Belleville spent three years leading both hardware and software engineering for the Macintosh and overseeing the development of the LaserWriter.
In a 2015 documentary, he said that working under Jobs consumed his life and destroyed his marriage, yet movingly struggled to hold back tears while reading an obituary he wrote for his former boss. It’s hard to think of a better metaphor for the intense highs and desolate lows of working with Steve.
45. Chris Espinosa
Meredith Espinosa
Apple employee No. 8 joined the company in 1976 when he was just 14 (despite being warned about the notorious Steves by his teachers), and is still there today, making him Apple Inc.’s longest-serving employee. Espinosa did a bit of everything in the early days, from marketing to writing manuals and business plans, before finding his niche in technical projects such as Mac OS, Xcode, and AppleScript. Few can claim to have contributed so much, and none for so long.
44. Ridley Scott
Getty Images
Lots of successful film directors have dabbled in advertising, but rarely does the resultant work merit more than a faintly embarrassing footnote in their career. Not so with Ridley Scott, who had already made Alien and Blade Runner when he was approached to direct a high-profile spot for the upcoming Macintosh computer. He could have passed on the sort of thing as beneath his stature, but instead, he made what is widely considered the greatest TV commercial ever made. All that without even showing the product.
43. Rod Holt
Alchetron
Already well into his 40s by 1977, Rod Holt was reportedly skeptical about both Apple and Steve Jobs himself when first asked by his boss at Atari to “help the kids out.” He reportedly demanded a fee of $200 per day, which proved to be a wise investment. Holt designed a vital switching power supply for the Apple II and later joined full-time as employee No. 5, chief engineer, VP of engineering, and chief scientist. “This process of invention is very unusual,” he said on the Mac’s 30th birthday many years later. “I think the world could use a lot more of it.”
42. Angela Ahrendts
Apple
Apple’s first and for many years its only high-profile female executive, ex-Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts merits inclusion as the pioneer she undoubtedly was in a male-dominated industry. (Just look at how many men there are on this list.) But that would be to sell her short, because she also made an indelible mark on the company’s retail presence around the world. Every time you walk into an Apple Store, you’re seeing Ahrendts’ influence, and the value brought to Apple by her deep understanding of the fashion and luxury markets.
41. Daniel Kottke
Having met Jobs (whom he described as “a really sweet guy, real quiet and shy”) at Reed College in 1972, Daniel Kottke later travelled extensively with the Apple founder. They trekked in India, seeking spiritual enlightenment, and they visited All One Farm, the Oregon commune owned by the love guru and LSD trafficker Robert Friedland. So it was natural enough, when Jobs started a company whose name was inspired by Friedland’s orchard, that he would bring his friend on board as Apple employee No. 12.
A self-taught engineer with little computing knowledge, Kottke grew to become an invaluable member of the team. He assembled and debugged circuit boards (he reportedly still owns all 12 original Mac logic boards), built prototypes, and designed the Macintosh’s detached keyboard. His signature is even embossed inside the case. But Kottke lost favor with the boss. When Apple went public in 1980, Rod Holt offered to match whatever stock options Jobs would give his buddy. “OK,” Jobs replied. “I will give him zero.” Not such a sweet guy after all.
This is part one of a five-part series counting down the most influential people throughout Apple’s 50-year history. Stay tuned to Macworld all week as we reveal the full list, continuing tomorrow with 40-31.