罗纳德·韦恩1934—

早年

韦恩1934年5月17日出生于俄亥俄州的克利夫兰。在创立苹果电脑公司前，罗纳德·韦恩与史蒂夫·乔布斯就职于雅达利。韦恩设计了苹果公司的第一个标志。

Ronald Gerald Wayne (born May 17, 1934) is an American retired electronics industry business executive. He co-founded Apple Computer Company—which later became Apple Inc.—as a partnership with Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs on April 1, 1976, providing administrative oversight and documentation for the new venture. He has been often referred to by media as the 'forgotten founder' of Apple.

Early life

Ronald Wayne was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on May 17, 1934. He trained as a technical draftsman at the School of Industrial Art High School in New York City.

Career

In 1956, Wayne moved to California. In 1971, Wayne started his first business designing and manufacturing slot machines. This venture failed within its first year of operation.

Atari (1973–1976)

As Junior Designer, Wayne established the official documentation and materials control systems at Atari. This sophisticated cataloging and inventory tracking system dramatically improved Atari's manufacturing efficiency and eliminated substantial losses attributable to lost, duplicated, and mis-filed raw materials required to fabricate complete video game systems. The documentation system included operating instructions, circuit diagrams, and cabinet designs for all arcade games sold by Atari. As product development manager, he designed video game enclosures and led development of games such as Gran-Track Racing. His Atari tenure ended following the Warner Communications acquisition.

Apple (1976–1977)

In 1976, Wayne was well respected for his sophisticated and comprehensive internal corporate documentation systems at the three-year-old Atari. There, he met coworkers Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. To assist in mediation of one of their typically intense discussions about the design of computers and the future of the industry, Wayne invited the pair to his home to facilitate and advise them. In the ensuing two-hour conversation about technology and business, Jobs proposed the founding of a computer company led by Wozniak and himself. The two would each hold a 45% stake so that Wayne could receive a 10% stake to act as a tie-breaker in their decisions. As the venture's self-described "adult in the room" at age 41, Wayne drafted the original partnership agreement, and the three founded Apple Computer on April 1, 1976. Wayne created the first illustrations of the Apple logo (known as Apple Newton). He also wrote the Apple I Operations Manual.

Wayne's attitude concerning business was already risk-averse following his experience five years prior with the "very traumatic" failure of his slot machine business, the debts from which he had spent one year repaying. Jobs secured a $15,000 line of credit to purchase materials needed to fabricate Apple's first order placed by the Byte Shop, a business with a reputation as a notoriously slow-paying vendor. This created great anxiety in Wayne concerning his personal financial exposure. Legally, all members of a partnership are personally responsible for any debts incurred by any partner; unlike Jobs and Wozniak, then 21 and 25, Wayne had already acquired a sizable amount of personal assets that potential creditors could possibly seize. Furthermore, his passion was in original product engineering and in slot machines, and not in the documentation systems Jobs and Wozniak expected him to manage, possibly indefinitely at Apple. Believing he was "standing in the shadow of giants" of product-design and eager to shield himself from financial exposure, he exited the company. "Twelve days after Wayne created the document that formally created Apple, he returned to the county registrar's office filing an amendment formally withdrawing his name and involvement in the company". Some sources say that he created amendments to limit his liability and profits to 10% only for his 10% share of the new company and share 90% of profit or loss with Jobs and Wozniak.

Media

Wayne appeared in the documentary Welcome to Macintosh in 2008, where he describes some of his early experiences with Jobs and Wozniak.

In July 2011, Wayne published a memoir titled Adventures of an Apple Founder. His plan for initial exclusivity on the Apple Books store did not materialize.

Wayne wrote and released a socioeconomic treatise titled Insolence of Office, released on October 1, 2011.

Personal life

Wayne lives in Pahrump, Nevada.