---
id: "entity-steve-jobs"
type: "entity"
source_timestamps: ["¶3"]
tags: ["founder", "case-study"]
related: ["concept-founder-transition-risk-premium"]
entityType: "person"
canonicalName: "Steve Jobs"
aliases: []
sources: ["tail2"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-tail2"
originDay: 2
articleStem: "hbr-tail-122-leading-after-founder"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/01/leading-after-the-founder"
sourceTitle: "Leading After the Founder"
---
# Steve Jobs

Co-founder and former CEO of Apple. Cited as a high-profile example of the enduring power and vision of a founder, demonstrating how a founder can transform a company even after returning from a decade-long absence. He was ousted in 1985 and returned in 1997, leading one of the most famous founder-return turnarounds in corporate history.

Used in the article to establish that a founder's influence is uniquely durable — the intuition behind [[concept-founder-transition-risk-premium]] and the broader thesis that founder transitions are psychological, not merely operational ([[quote-psychological-processes]]).