🧑🏻‍💼 CEO — Gil Amelio

Gil Amelio served as Apple's CEO for approximately 500 days in 1996–1997, during one of the company's most difficult periods. He oversaw the critical acquisition of NeXT for $429 million in December 1996, a deal that brought Steve Jobs back to Apple and provided the NeXTSTEP operating system that would become the foundation of Mac OS X. Despite restructuring efforts, Amelio was unable to reverse Apple's financial slide and was ousted by the board in mid-1997, paving the way for Jobs to take over as interim CEO.