Jobs is a co-founder of Apple, the man behind the astonishing success of the computer animation firm Pixar - of Toy Story and Finding Nemo fame - a billionaire regarded as a visionary in the industry. Born to an Egyptian Arab father and an American mother in Green Bay, Wisconsin, 49 years ago, Steven Paul was adopted soon after his birth by Paul and Clara Jobs, who lived in Mountain View in Santa Clara, California. After completing high school in Cupertino in northern California, Jobs went north to study physics, literature and poetry at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, but dropped out after one term. Back in California and already interested in computers, he became a regular at the now legendary Homebrew Computer Club, along with another young man, five years his senior, with his own visions of the future: Steve Wozniak. In 1976, when Jobs was 21, he and Wozniak started their own business, the Apple Computer Company, which at the time was based in Jobs' family garage. According to legend Jobs sold his prized Volkswagen campervan to finance the original design. With a mission to produce affordable personal computers the long-haired, bearded pair went to market with the Apple I shortly afterwards. A local company ordered 25 of the prototype and the pair were on their way. The almost instant success of Apple I and its sister Apple II launched them. By the age of 25 Jobs was worth $165m. Apple was the first landmark in Jobs' career but by 1985 he was on his way out after John Sculley, who had joined the company from Pepsi-Cola, decided it was time to drop the pilot. Four years later Jobs returned with another computer company, NextStep, which never achieved the success of Apple but reminded people that he was far from a finished. What was later hailed as Jobs' second coming started with his involvement in Pixar, the animation company he bought from the Star Wars director, George Lucas, and renamed. The hit movie Toy Story instantly established it as one of the key players in Hollywood, a success only amplified last year with the release of Finding Nemo. Pixar made Jobs a billionaire. But more significantly his triumph there also reminded people of his ability to divine the technological future. Apple, which was by then starting to taste stale, if not exactly rotting, asked him to return. He came back in 1997 and within a year the ailing company was once more posting handsome profits.
