On Wednesday, August 24, 2011 on a press release Steve Jobs, CEO from Apple resigned his position. Read his resignation letter here:

Letter from Steve Jobs

CUPERTINO, Calif.–August 24, 2011–To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve

About Steve Jobs: 
Steven Paul ”Steve“ Jobs (born February 24, 1955) is an American business magnate and inventor. He is the co-founder and former chief executive officer of Apple Inc.^[11][12] Jobs also previously served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios; he became a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company in 2006, following the acquisition of Pixar by Disney. He was credited in the 1995 movie Toy Story as an executive producer.^[13]

In the late 1970s, Jobs, with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Mike Markkula,^[14] and others, designed, developed, and marketed one of the first commercially successful lines of personal computers, the Apple II series. In the early 1980s, Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of the mouse-driven graphical user interface which led to the creation of theMacintosh.^[15][16] After losing a power struggle with the board of directors in 1984,^[17][18] Jobs resigned from Apple and founded NeXT, a computer platform development company specializing in the higher education and business markets. Apple’s subsequent 1996 buyout of NeXT brought Jobs back to the company he co-founded, and he has served as its CEO since 1997. In 1986, he acquired the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd which was spun off as Pixar Animation Studios.^[19] He remained CEO and majority shareholder at 50.1% until its acquisition by The Walt Disney company in 2006.^[3] Consequently Jobs became Disney’s largest individual shareholder at 7% and a member of Disney’s Board of Directors.^{[20][21][22][23]}

Jobs’ history in business has contributed much to the symbolic image of the idiosyncratic, individualistic Silicon Valley entrepreneur, emphasizing the importance of design and understanding the crucial role aesthetics play in public appeal. His work driving forward the development of products that are both functional and elegant has earned him a devoted following.^[24]


Sources: Business Wire, Wikipedia
Photo credit to: Apple.com