Steve Jobs Resigns From Gap's Board Of Directors

by , 8:30 PM EDT, October 3rd, 2002

The San Francisco Chronicle broke the news that Steve Jobs has resigned from the Board of Directors at Gap, Inc. Mr. Jobs began serving on the board in 1999. At the same time, Mickey Drexler, the Chairman of Gap's board of directors, began serving on Apple's board. That arrangement recently drew criticism from Business Week, which rated the two companies' boards as among the eight worst in Corporate America.

Gap, Inc. released a press release announcing that Penny Hughes had joined the company's board, with a short paragraph at the end about the departure of Mr. Jobs.

The company also announced that Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple and Chairman and CEO of Pixar Animation Studios, resigned from Gap Inc.'s Board of Directors earlier this week to focus on other priorities.

Ms. Hughes is a Coca-Cola executive from the company's European operations (read the Gap press release for more information on Ms. Hughes).

The San Francisco Chronicle says that Mr. Jobs attended but 66% of the Gap's board meetings in 2001, an absentee rate higher than Larry Ellison's 75% attendance record for Apple's board meetings during the same time. Mr. Ellison resigned from Apple's board late last month, citing time commitment issues. The SF Chronicle's report also said that Mr. Jobs had waived his salaried compensation for being a board member for the company. You can find other related information in the full report from the SF Chronicle.

The Mac Observer Spin:

It would seem that either Steve Jobs or The Gap's board of directors took Business Week's criticism more seriously than we did. Of course, Mr. Jobs departure from the board may well be completely unrelated to that article, but we will likely not know for some time when his reasons for retiring might come out in an interview or other comments. At a time when Apple needs to be as focused as possible, it's not necessarily a bad thing for Mr. Jobs to have one less commitment.

Mr. Drexler has assisted with Apple's retail strategy, and we hope that he will continue to work on Apple's board. Apple's retail strategy has been a singular success in a market that has seen a dearth of successes anywhere outside of Cupertino, CA or Round Rock, TX. With much of Apple's retail store strategy having been mapped and staffed by Gap executives, AAPL investors can thank Mr. Drexler for some of that success.

The Gap