Jean-Louis Gassée

is the former Apple executive that Apple Computer didn't get back when it, instead, got Steve Jobs.

In 1996, when Apple's CEO Gil Amelio was looking for a partner with an operating system, he considered paying $100 million for Be, the company Gassée started in 1990 when he left the highly visible position of head of product development at Apple. At that time, Be and Gassée were getting good press on its nascent operating system and hardware aimed at the multimedia-developer market.

Instead, Amelio bought out Next for $400 million, and got both its OS and Steve Jobs, who eventually ousted him.

Since then, Be has gotten out of hardware and now makes an OS to co-exist with the Macintosh OS and with Windows on Intel machines.

Although some published reports say the Apple deal foundered on the price Gassée set for his company, he says Apple decided it would do better with Next and its access to corporate markets.

Paul Schindler recently interviewed Gassée, and talked to him about Apple, about Be, and about the failed merger of Be and Apple.

» read interview
» hear interview

Born
Paris

Personal
Married, lives in Palo Alto, Calif., with three children

Education
M.S. in Math and Physics from Orsay University, France

Boards Served On
3Com, Electronics for Imaging, and Laser Master Technologies

Career
Began with Hewlett-Packard in France, served in European headquarters in Geneva. Headed Data General in France, headed Exxon Office Systems in France. Joined Apple France on Dec. 12, 1980, the day Apple went public in the United States. Made France the No. 1 foreign subsidiary. Became Apple vice president of Product Development in December 1985. Left in the fall of 1990. Be made its first public announcement of product plans in October 1995.

Be's Goal
To see what could be accomplished if you built a PC using new assumptions, based on cutting-edge software design concepts, and designed for the next decade's applications, rather than the last decade's.

In Simpler Terms
Create a new audio-visual operating system for Macintosh and Intel computers that co-exists with existing operating systems.