Michael Spindler

Michael Spindler (22 December 1942 – 2017) was a German-American businessman. He was the president and CEO of Apple Computer from 1993 to 1996.

Spindler was born in Berlin, and was graduated from engineering at Technical University in Cologne in 1964. He worked at DEC and Intel before joining Apple in 1980. As executive vice president of marketing, he established a strategy of allowing Apple's international subsidiaries to run with great independence, releasing specialized products and producing their own advertising campaigns. This helped the company win significant market share in Asia and Europe.

In 1993, the board of directors ousted John Sculley and chose Spindler as the company's new CEO. He immediately reorganized the company and presided over the successful migration of the Macintosh to the new PowerPC architecture, but also failures like the Newton handheld platform, the Pippin console, the Copland project, and the highly controversial Macintosh clone initiative. He also became infamous for emotional issues, sometimes hiding under his desk during panic attacks. He was replaced as CEO by Gil Amelio in 1996.