Apple Computer Inc also chose the MacWorld Expo in Boston to reveal the initial draft of its new look boardroom line up. Most significant is the ousting of co-founder and key board member Mike Markkula. In come Steve Jobs (co-founder of Apple in 1976 and now chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios); Bill Campbell (president and CEO of Intuit Corp also a former Apple VP and Claris boss); Larry Ellison (chairman and chief executive of Oracle Corp); and Jerry York (former IBM Corp CFO). Gareth Chang (president of Hughes International) and Edgar Woolard (former chief executive of DuPont de Nemours and Co) are retained. Katherine Hudson and Bernard Goldstein have already resigned. Apple plans to recruit a further three members to fill its nine possible board seats, including specialists from the areas of education and consumer markets. The position of chief executive will be filled by one of the three remaining choices and the chairman will not be named until the CEO slot has been tied up. Jobs says the board will be compensated according to the future performance of Apple, in stock options, not cash payments. Jobs also said the overhaul of the Apple board was part of his plan to begin the company’s turnaround at the top, hoping it will be reflected in the fortune of the company as a whole. Board member Woolard said the chief objective will be to identify which are the niches in which Apple can compete and win. In an unusually conciliatory observation, Oracle’s Ellison said Apple must learn not how to compete with Microsoft, but how to be different. And it can, because Apple is the only lifestyle brand in the computer industry, he argued. Jobs left delegates with the message Think Different , a play on Big Blue’s motto.
