Gilbert Frank Amelio (born March 1, 1943) is an American technology executive. Amelio worked at
Bell Labs
Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, Murray Hill, New Jersey, the compa ...
,
Fairchild Semiconductor
Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc. was an American semiconductor company based in San Jose, California. It was founded in 1957 as a division of Fairchild Camera and Instrument by the " traitorous eight" who defected from Shockley Semi ...
, and the semiconductor division of
Rockwell International
Rockwell International was a major American manufacturing conglomerate (company), conglomerate. It was involved in aircraft, the space industry, defense and commercial electronics, components in the automotive industry, printing presses, avioni ...
, and was also the CEO of
National Semiconductor
National Semiconductor Corporation was an United States of America, American Semiconductor manufacturing, semiconductor manufacturer, which specialized in analogue electronics, analog devices and subsystems, formerly headquartered in Santa Clara, ...
and
Apple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Computer Co ...
.
Early life and career
Amelio grew up in Miami, Florida, of Italian born parents, and graduated from
Miami High School. He received a bachelor's degree, master's degree, and PhD in
physics
Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
from the
Georgia Institute of Technology
The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public university, public research university and Institute of technology (United States), institute of technology in Atlanta, ...
. While at Georgia Tech, Amelio was a member of the
Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.
Amelio joined
Bell Labs
Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, Murray Hill, New Jersey, the compa ...
as a researcher in 1968.
In 1970, Amelio was on the team that demonstrated the first working
charge-coupled device
A charge-coupled device (CCD) is an integrated circuit containing an array of linked, or coupled, capacitors. Under the control of an external circuit, each capacitor can transfer its electric charge to a neighboring capacitor. CCD sensors are a ...
(CCD).
He moved to
Fairchild Semiconductor
Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc. was an American semiconductor company based in San Jose, California. It was founded in 1957 as a division of Fairchild Camera and Instrument by the " traitorous eight" who defected from Shockley Semi ...
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.
He worked his way up to president of the semiconductor division of
Rockwell International
Rockwell International was a major American manufacturing conglomerate (company), conglomerate. It was involved in aircraft, the space industry, defense and commercial electronics, components in the automotive industry, printing presses, avioni ...
, and then its communications systems division.
Amelio joined
National Semiconductor
National Semiconductor Corporation was an United States of America, American Semiconductor manufacturing, semiconductor manufacturer, which specialized in analogue electronics, analog devices and subsystems, formerly headquartered in Santa Clara, ...
as president and chief executive in February 1991.
Apple Computer
In 1994 Amelio joined the board of directors of
Apple
An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...
. After his resignation from National Semiconductor, Amelio became Apple CEO on February 2, 1996, succeeding
Michael Spindler
Michael Spindler (22 December 1942 – September 5, 2016) was a German businessman who was president and CEO of Apple from 1993 to 1996. Spindler was born in Berlin, Germany.
Career
Spindler graduated from engineering at Technical University in ...
. 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
A business jet, private jet, or bizjet is a jet aircraft designed for transporting small groups of people, typically business executives and high-ranking coworker, associates. Business jets are generally designed for faster air travel and more ...
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
Mac OS 8 is the eighth major release of the classic Mac OS operating system for Macintosh computers, released by Apple Computer on July 26, 1997. It includes the largest overhaul of the classic Mac OS experience since the release of System 7 ...
.
To replace Copland and fulfill the need for a next generation operating system Amelio started negotiations to buy
BeOS
BeOS is a discontinued operating system for personal computers that was developed by Be Inc. It was conceived for the company's BeBox personal computer which was released in 1995. BeOS was designed for multitasking, multithreading, and a graph ...
from
Be Inc.
Be Inc. was an American computer company that created and developed the BeOS and BeIA operating systems, and the BeBox personal computer. It was founded in 1990 by former Apple Inc., Apple Computer executive Jean-Louis Gassée, who also served a ...
but negotiations stalled when Be CEO
Jean-Louis Gassée
Jean-Louis Gassée (born 24 March 1944) is a business executive. He is best known as a former executive at Apple Computer, where he worked from 1981 to 1990. He also founded Be Inc., creators of the BeOS computer operating system. After leavin ...
demanded $275 million; Apple was unwilling to offer more than $200 million. In November 1996 Amelio started discussions with
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology company Apple Inc. Jobs was also the founder of NeXT and chairman and majority shareholder o ...
's
NeXT
NeXT, Inc. (later NeXT Computer, Inc. and NeXT Software, Inc.) was an American technology company headquartered in Redwood City, California that specialized in computer workstations for higher education and business markets, and later develope ...
, and bought the company on February 4, 1997, for $400 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. Apple lost another $708 million. 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. Jobs later quoted Amelio as having said:
Apple is like a ship with a hole in the bottom, leaking water, and my job is to get the ship pointed in the right direction.
It was reported that Amelio's contract gave him about $3.5 million in severance pay, after a $2.3 million performance bonus in 1996.
Post-Apple career
Since 1998 Amelio has been a
venture capitalist
Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in terms of number ...
. 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. He became senior partner at Sienna Ventures in
Sausalito, California
Sausalito ( Spanish for "small willow grove") is a city in Marin County, California, United States, located southeast of Marin City, south-southeast of San Rafael, and about north of San Francisco from the Golden Gate Bridge.
Sausalito's ...
in May 2001.
In 2005 he co-founded
Acquicor with ex-Apple
CTO Ellen Hancock and Apple co-founder
Steve Wozniak
Stephen Gary Wozniak (; born August 11, 1950), also known by his nickname Woz, is an American technology entrepreneur, electrical engineer, computer programmer, philanthropist, and inventor. In 1976, he co-founded Apple Inc., Apple Computer with ...
.
Acquicor acquired
Jazz Semiconductor in early 2007, and sold it in 2008 for a loss.
Amelio was a director and chairman of the
Semiconductor Industry Association
The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) is a trade association and lobbying group founded in 1977 that represents the United States semiconductor industry. It is located in Washington, D.C.
About
The Semiconductor Industry Association (SI ...
. Since 1996 he has been an advisor to the
Malaysia Multimedia Super Corridor and to Malaysia's Prime Minister. In June 2003 he was named chairman of the board of
Ripcord Networks; where he joined Steve Wozniak, Ellen Hancock, and other Apple alumni. Amelio was a board member of
AT&T Inc.,
Pacific Telesis,
Chiron Corporation,
Sematech
SEMATECH (from Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology) was a not-for-profit consortium that performed research and development to advance chip manufacturing. SEMATECH involved collaboration between various sectors of the R&D community, includin ...
,
InterDigital, and
Georgia Tech
The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Established in 1885, it has the lar ...
(as chairman), as well as a trustee of the
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the History of cinema in the United States, motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private fu ...
.
He was a contributor to the report ''An American Imperative'' (1993), and author of the books ''Profit from Experience'' (1995, ) and ''On the Firing Line: My 500 Days at Apple'' (1998, ).
In November 2020, Amelio joined the board of directors for Nashville-based augmented reality startup VideoBomb.
Amelio joined the board of directors for
Mimms Museum of Technology and Art in September 2023.
Awards and honors
Amelio is an
IEEE
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines.
The IEEE ...
Fellow. He received the
IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award in 1991 for contributions to the development of the charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensors in consumer video cameras. He has been awarded 16 patents.
Books
*
** Reprint of the above?
*
References
External links
The Rise and Fall of Apple's Gil Ameliofrom Low End Mac
{{DEFAULTSORT:Amelio, Gil
1943 births
Living people
American corporate directors
American people of Italian descent
Apple Inc. executives
Directors of Apple Inc.
Fellows of the IEEE
Georgia Tech alumni