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Apple alums: Where are they now? (pictures)

Apple didn't just create the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad. Its employees have also gone on to found some of the most high-profile companies in the tech industry. Here are some of them.

Ian Sherr
Ian Sherr (he/him/his) grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, so he's always had a connection to the tech world. As an editor at large at CNET, he wrote about Apple, Microsoft, VR, video games and internet troubles. Aside from writing, he tinkers with tech at home, is a longtime fencer -- the kind with swords -- and began woodworking during the pandemic.
Ben Fox Rubin Former senior reporter
Ben Fox Rubin was a senior reporter for CNET News in Manhattan, reporting on Amazon, e-commerce and mobile payments. He previously worked as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and got his start at newspapers in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Ian Sherr
Ben Fox Rubin
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1 of 12 Vicki Behringer

Susan Kare

Kare joined Apple in 1982 and created the icons for the Macintosh computer (including the trash can) and the Mac's famous Chicago font. She was also the creative director at NeXT, the company Steve Jobs started after getting fired from Apple. Kare has her own design company and served as an expert witness for Apple in its patent suit against Samsung Electronics.

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2 of 12 Sarah Tew/CNET

Ron Johnson

Johnson joined Apple in 2000 after a successful tenure at Target, where he turned around the big box store's image with more fashionable products. At Apple, he oversaw the company's highly regarded retail stores, which were key parts of the launch for the iPod and iPhone. Johnson left Apple in 2011 to become CEO of J.C. Penney, but that gig lasted only two years before he was fired. He now leads Enjoy, a startup working on changing the way people buy things.

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3 of 12 James Martin/CNET

Marc Benioff

Benioff wrote code for Apple's Macintosh division in the 1980s. He went on to join Oracle, where he spent more than a decade in marketing, sales and product development. He founded Salesforce.com in 1999, which helped turn him into a billionaire. He's currently CEO of Salesfore.com

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4 of 12 James Martin/CNET

Jon Rubinstein

Rubinstein worked with Steve Jobs at NeXT and went on to help develop the iMac. He also led the team that created the iPod, which earned him the nickname "PodFather." In 2007, he became CEO of Palm, which was sold to Hewlett-Packard for $1.2 billion three years later. He left HP in 2012. He's now co-CEO at hedge fund Bridgewater Associates.

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5 of 12 James Martin/CNET

Tony Fadell

Fadell was senior vice president of the iPod division at Apple, taking over after Jon Rubinstein "retired" in 2006. Fadell resigned in 2008 and then started Nest Labs in 2010, which created the "learning thermostat." Google bought Nest in 2014 for $3.2 billion. Fadell remains in charge of Nest.

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6 of 12 If You Can Company

Trip Hawkins

Hawkins was director of strategy and marketing at Apple from 1978 to 1982, when he left to found game maker Electronic Arts. He went on to help create the 3DO video game system and a game development company called Digital Chocolate. His current startup, If You Can, focuses on games for children.

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7 of 12 James Martin/CNET

Reid Hoffman

Hoffman worked on eWorld, Apple's early attempt at a social network, from 1994 to 1996. In 2000, he joined PayPal, which was bought by eBay two years later. Around that time, Hoffman co-founded professional networking service LinkedIn. He has since joined Greylock Partners, which has helped fund high-profile tech companies such as Facebook, Airbnb, Coupons.com and Zynga.

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8 of 12 OnLive

Steve Perlman

Perlman joined Apple in 1985 and worked on the technology behind QuickTime, the audio and video player that later powered software like iTunes. Perlman went on to found WebTV, which created computers that allowed people to surf the Internet on their television. After WebTV was bought by Microsoft, Perlman started OnLive, a company that lets people play video games over the Internet using streaming technology -- similar to the way Netflix streams movies. OnLive filed for bankruptcy in 2012 and was bought by Sony in 2015.

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9 of 12 Intel

Andy Rubin

Rubin was an Apple software engineer from 1989 to 1992. In 1995, he joined Steve Perlman in what would become WebTV, which was bought by Microsoft and became MSN TV. Rubin then co-founded Danger, which created the Sidekick, a predecessor to smartphones like the iPhone. Danger was also bought by Microsoft. In 2003, Rubin co-founded Android, which Google acquired and turned into the mobile software that powers a majority of the world's phones today. Rubin left Google in 2014 and has started his own tech incubator.

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10 of 12 Woz.org

Steve Wozniak

Wozniak, or Woz as he's called, co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs in 1976. He remains an Apple employee and has become a philanthropist and founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Tech Museum. He is also a Segway polo enthusiast.

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11 of 12 © Michele Mattei/Sygma/Corbis

Jean-Louis Gassée

Gassée worked at Apple from 1981 to 1990, serving as leader of Mac development after Jobs was fired and as head of marketing. He's a general partner at Allegis Capital and writes regular commentaries about Apple and the tech industry.

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12 of 12 Karsten Lemm/dpa/Corbis

Guy Kawasaki

Kawasaki was chief evangelist at Apple, convincing developers to make their products work on the Mac. He was a founding partner at Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage startup investment firm, and co-founded Alltop, an online discussion service.

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