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The common-law CEO
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July 9, 1998: 2:20 p.m. ET
Apple's interim CEO Steve Jobs won't commit, but no one seems to mind
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Steve Jobs is still hanging out as Apple Computer's interim Chief Executive Officer a year after the company gave its last CEO, Gil Amelio, the boot. But after a whole year, why is he still carrying around that title of "interim" CEO?
Maybe it's a fear of commitment. Maybe it's a fear of wearing a suit. Or maybe at 43, Jobs is just the oldest member of Generation X.
Maura Hanigan, president of Hanigan Consulting, says that a Gen-Xer is a person "who looks at an opportunity and says 'I'll do this work as long as I find it intellectually interesting, as long as I want to be here, and as long as they seem to want me here.' This is a great stint" for Jobs, she said.
Or maybe it's just the Apple way. A recent ad campaign for Apple depicts people who have challenged the status quo, and encourages viewers to "Think Different."
No major company in recent history has gone this long without an official CEO, but why complain? The stock is doing just fine. Apple (AAPL) is up almost 150 percent this year. And the company seems to have accepted Jobs as, well, a common-law CEO.
But there's one potentially messy aspect of having a "common-law" CEO. If he makes a lot of executive hires and then moves on, the company may find itself stuck with a lot of illegitimate kids.
--by staff writer Paul Sloan
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Apple
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