February 16, 1942: World, Meet Armas Markkula

If there was a consistent theme to Apple oversight until the return of Steve Jobs it was the presence of Mike Markkula on the Board of Directors. Widely considered the power behind the front man, Mr. Markkula, you might remember, was the venture capitalist who secured the funds for Apple to become a serious company.

Markkula's seed money for Apple came from the millions of dollars he earned in stock options while at Intel. In fact, his financial success was so great that he was able to retire comfortably at the age of 38.

Not content to sit on the sidelines, he purchased a third of Apple and wrote the company's first business plan after a meeting with Wozniak and Jobs in Apple Computer's then headquarters, Jobs' garage. The power behind the scenes, majority stockholder and venture capital genius was born Armas Clifford Markkula, Jr. this month in 1942.