NAME: Steven Paul Jobs

AGE: 56

BORN: Feb. 24, 1955, in San Francisco and adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs.

EDUCATION: Graduated from high school in Cupertino, Calif., in 1972 and enrolled in Reed College in Portland, Ore., but dropped out after one semester.

FAMILY: Wife, Laurene Powell; their three children, Reed Paul, Erin Sienna and Eve; plus daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs, from relationship with Bay Area painter Chrisann Brennan; biological sister, author Mona Simpson.

RESIDENCE: Palo Alto, California, U.S.

RELIGION: Buddhism

NET WORTH: $8.3 Billion (2011)

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:

1974. Took a job at video game maker Atari.

1976. Founded Apple with Steve Wozniak in 1976 in Jobs' garage.

1982. Had Apple's annual sales climb to $1 billion with Apple II

1984. Launched the Macintosh, the first successful small computer with a graphical user interface.

1985. Was pushed out as Apple's chairman and relieved as head of Apple's Mac division by CEO John Sculley. Founded NeXT, a computer platform development company specializing in the higher education and business markets.

1986. Acquired for $10 million the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd., which was renamed Pixar Animation Studios. Was CEO and majority shareholder of Pixar until its acquisition by The Walt Disney Co. in 2006 for $7.4 billion. Following the Disney deal, became Disney's largest individual shareholder at 7 percent and a member of the board of directors.

1996. Returned as adviser after Apple buyout of NeXT for $429 million and became de facto CEO in July.

1998. Introduced the iMac, the egg-shaped looking PC that integrated the monitor and the computer and replaced the floppy disk drive with a USB port. Had Apple return to profitability.

2001. Launched the iPod, which reinvented the personal music player. Also launched Mac computers with OS X, the modern Mac operating system based on Next software.

2003. Opened the iTunes Music Store, which became the number-one music vendor in the United States and turned around the music industry.

2007. Launched the iPhone, the line of Internet- and multimedia-enabled, multi-touch screen smartphone. The iPhone topped other smartphones in units sold in the second quarter of this year.

2010. Launched the iPad, creating a new tech category. More than 29 million iPad units also since releasing the device in April and has recorded $18.5 billion in revenue in its books.

January 2011. Took an indefinite medical leave. Had announced in 2004 that he had cancer in his pancreas and had the tumor was removed in July 2004. Has been facing illness since. Went on a six-month leave starting January 2009 and underwent a liver transplant in April. Despite the leave, still made appearances at the iPad 2 launch event in March, the WWDC keynote introducing iCloud in June, and before the Cupertino City Council in June.

August 24, 2011. Abruptly resigned as Apple CEO, named Tim Cook as successor, and took the role of chairman. Leaving at a time when Apple is already worth more than $345 billion, second only to Exxon Mobil and topping than Microsoft, IBM, Google and Intel. Apple's shares closed at $376 Wednesday, from $6.56 in April 2003.

"There's an old Wayne Gretzky quote that I love. 'I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.' And we've always tried to do that at Apple. Since the very very beginning. And we always will," Steve Jobs at the MacWorld Conference and Expo in January 2007.

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