The first couple of times I read this headline at various news sites, my second thought was, “Maybe now Google will release tools for the Mac OS at the same time as for the Windows OS and not months later?”
Google CEO Joins Apple Board
Apple Computer said Google CEO Eric Schmidt has been elected to the iPod and computer maker's board of directors.
My third thought was to remember that having Intuit's chairman has not helped Quickbooks for Mac evolve much, and Quicken still sucks.
Oh, my first thought? “Meh.”
A shiny nickel to the first news story that lists all eight board members. CNet, for instance lists Al Gore, Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt, doesn't bother listing the names of
heads of Intuit, J. Crew and Genentechand leaves off two other unnamed members. The WSJ article cited above only bothers to list Jobs, Gore and Schmidt. The Register UK lists Gore, Jobs, and inexplicably, Arthur Levinson, CEO of Genentech. Look for yourself.
If you really want to know (and obviously, if you read this far, you might be curious), per Hoovers, here are all the 8 Apple board members, with brief bios. I snipped arbitrarily, so, for instance if you don't know who Al Gore is, you might want to do a little extra research:
Technorati Tags: Al_Gore, Apple, Business, Technology
Director Fred D. Anderson Age 61 (Fred D. Anderson has been a founding partner of Elevation Partners, a private equity firm focused on the media and entertainment industry, since July 2004. Previously, Mr. Anderson served as the Company's Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer from April 1996 to June 2004. Mr. Anderson also serves on the Board of Directors of eBay Inc.)Director William V. (Bill) Campbell
Age 65 (Mr. Campbell assumed his role as chairman of the board of directors in August 1998. From 1994 to 1998, Mr. Campbell served as the president and chief executive officer of Intuit. Mr. Campbell additionally served as CEO of the company from September 1999 until January 2000.)Director Millard S. (Mickey) Drexler
Age 61 (Millard S. Drexler has been Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of J. Crew Group, Inc. since January 2003. Previously, Mr. Drexler was Chief Executive Officer of Gap Inc. from 1995 and President from 1987 until September 2002. Mr. Drexler was also a member of the Board of Directors of Gap Inc. from November 1983 until October 2002.)Director Albert (Al) Gore Jr.
Age 57 (Former Vice President Al Gore has served as a Senior Advisor to Google, Inc. and Vice Chairman of Metropolitan West Financial LLC since 2001.)CEO and Director Steven P. (Steve) Jobs
Age 50, $1 salary (Steve Jobs is the CEO of Apple, which he co-founded in 1976, and Pixar, the Academy-Award-winning animation studios which he co-founded in 1986...Steve grew up in the apricot orchards which later became known as Silicon Valley, and still lives there with his wife and three children.)Director Arthur D. (Art) Levinson
Age 55 (Arthur Levinson became president and chief executive officer of Genentech in July 1995. Levinson was made a member of the board of directors that same year and was named chairman of the board in 1999...Prior to his employment with Genentech, Levinson was a postdoctoral fellow in the department of microbiology at the University of California, San Francisco. Levinson received his doctorate in biochemistry from Princeton University and his bachelor's degree from the University of Washington, Seattle. Levinson is from Seattle, Washington.)Director Eric E. Schmidt
Age 50 (Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin recruited Eric Schmidt from Novell, where he led that company's strategic planning, management and technology development as chairman and CEO. Since coming to Google, Eric has focused on building the corporate infrastructure needed to maintain Google's rapid growth as a company and on ensuring that quality remains high while product development cycle times are kept to a minimum. Along with Larry and Sergey, Eric shares responsibility for Google's day-to-day operations. Eric's Novell experience culminated a 20-year record of achievement as an Internet strategist, entrepreneur and developer of great technologies. His well-seasoned perspective perfectly complements Google's needs as a young and rapidly growing search engine with a unique corporate culture.Prior to his appointment at Novell, Eric was chief technology officer and corporate executive officer at Sun Microsystems, Inc., where he led the development of Java, Sun's platform-independent programming technology, and defined Sun's Internet software strategy. Before joining Sun in 1983, he was a member of the research staff at the Computer Science Lab at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), and held positions at Bell Laboratories and Zilog. Eric has a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University, and a master's and Ph.D. in computer science from the University of California-Berkeley. In 2006, Eric was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, which recognized his work on “the development of strategies for the world's most successful Internet search engine company.)
Director Jerome B. (Jerry) York
Age 67 (Jerome B. York has been Chief Executive Officer of Harwinton Capital Corporation, a private investment company that he controls, since September 2003. From January 2000 until September 2003, Mr. York was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MicroWarehouse, Inc., a reseller of computer hardware, software and peripheral products. From September 1995 to October 1999, he was Vice Chairman of Tracinda Corporation. From May 1993 to September 1995 he was Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of IBM Corporation, and served as a member of IBM's Board of Directors from January 1995 to August 1995. Mr. York is also a director of Tyco International Ltd. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc.)
