Steve Jobs Crowned 'Smartest CEO In Tech' By Fortune

Here's something to brighten Steve Jobs' day as he grapples with the monopoly abuse lawsuit brought against Apple and AT&T: Steve Jobs has topped Fortune's list of the top 50 smartest people in tech.

Fortune named the "visionary," "micromanager," and "showman" Jobs "smartest CEO in tech," ahead of other greats such as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Alibaba CEO Jack Ma, who were picked as runner-ups.

Noting that "smart" includes both intelligence and impact, Fortune offers this explanation for why Steve Jobs was crowned "smartest CEO" in tech:

When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 after a 12-year exile, the company was close to bankruptcy. Thirteen years later it has a market cap of $250 billion and is the world's most valuable tech company, transforming whole industries along the way. iTunes reinvented music. Pixar, now part of Disney, elevated animated films. The iPhone changed telecom. And the new iPad has other computer makers scrambling to respond. Rocking one industry could be luck, but upending four? That's smart.

Fortune's list had even more love for Apple: Jonathon Ive, Apple's Senior VP of Industrial Design, was named "smartest designer." "From the iPod to the iPhone to the iPad, his contributions have set the course not just for Apple but for design more broadly," Fortune writes of Ive.

Other techies honored by Fortune include Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (smartest founder), director James Cameron (smartest hybrid), and Microsoft researcher and Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society fellow Danah Boyd (smartest academic).

Do you agree with Fortune picking Steve Jobs as "smartest CEO?" Why or why not? Who would you have picked?

Comments

[StAlphonso]

11:30 PM on 07/13/2010

Jobs' true genius lies in the fact that early this year, he snapped up all the duct tape stock he could get his hands on.

[Truth789]

08:13 PM on 07/13/2010

Well if anyone is reading this and they want to buy Information Technology products, go to www.itosolutions.net for Cisco, IBM, VMware, Dell, HP, Microsoft etc....

[AJ in ATL]

02:40 PM on 07/12/2010

Jobs is a thief who stole all of the foundation for his technology from Xerox. I will give jobs full credit though as Xerox was a bunch of fools to let the proverbial fox raid the hen house as he saw the potential to be had by the tech Xerox had developed. That is why he's so secretive as he knows what happens when others get a hold of your designs before they are out on the market.

[SanityForOnce]

04:36 PM on 07/12/2010

LOL...... Jobs stole the technology. :-)

Apple bought the tech from Xerox. No piracy was needed, just a simple business transaction. Why is Jobs a villain for seeing value in something Xerox execs were too stupid to understand?

[AJ in ATL]

05:04 PM on 07/12/2010

Wrong as usual. The idiot execs who ran Xerox were the ones who invited him in to look at the tech and he subsequently stole it. Xerox even filed suit but it was dismissed because they filled 3 years after the fact. It is admitted though that many of the OS properties that Apple used were based off the GUI that they saw while visiting Xerox. Jobs is a thief but I give him full credit for his vision here to see past what Xerox didn't want to. It's Xerox's own fault for not running with it but I do call out Jobs for what he is and he's not the complete king people make him out to be.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Computer,_Inc._v._Microsoft_Corporation

[SanityForOnce]

01:31 PM on 07/12/2010

And it was Jobs who recognized Ive's talent and promoted him at a time when he was considering leaving the company. Jobs knows a good thing when he sees it.

[lendiggy]

12:36 PM on 07/12/2010

Does Apple and Facebook own HP or something?

[jtbreeze94]

12:13 PM on 07/12/2010

Why are so many people obsessed with Jobs?

[webandgraphics]

03:39 PM on 07/12/2010

Because they are disappearing... (the Jobs)

[gdkzen]

05:40 PM on 07/13/2010

He has successfully merged his public persona, with the public image of his company. To many, he _is_ Apple and the experience of using Apple's products (whether negative or positive) is linked to the user's concept of Steve Jobs.

This is a double edged sword. Those people who do not like Apple's products usually have a very negative opinion of Steve Jobs. Similarly, those who dislike Steve Jobs tend not to like his products. In the end, Jobs himself created the situation where Jobs = Apple. He rises and falls with this.

[Dante in Madison]

11:40 AM on 07/12/2010

Overrated.

[garystartswithg]

11:12 AM on 07/12/2010

love the bling. it matches the perfectly manicured stubble and black turtleneck, and covers up the hairline issue.

[BruntLIVE]

10:46 AM on 07/12/2010

Before this gets into 1,000 plus blogs from open-source people. I have yet to see the Engaget-Phone (or ePhone) or Gizmodo Phone (gPhone).

[JasonMcl]

01:32 PM on 07/12/2010

Engadget and Gizmodo review devices, they don't manufacture them. What are you trying to say here?

[BruntLIVE]

03:24 PM on 07/12/2010

Engadget and Gizmodo needs a phone to set a standard instead of being after the fact full of disgruntled programmers that can't get hired in their profession.

[StansDad]

10:27 AM on 07/12/2010

I don't spend enough time analyzing EVERY TECH CEO to even have a remote idea on who is the smartest. Also that's a really subjective and vague question anyway

[Tblack]

09:43 AM on 07/12/2010

Nothing is nuanced in this country. Everything is black or white, "best" or worst.

[artist-53]

11:37 AM on 07/12/2010

That's because America's education has been reduced to a standardized way of learning. We're served either or on a daily basis.Be it at home, work or in our politics.

Steve Jobs obviously had the intellectual freedom to expand his creativity, because he came before the Educational standards in this Country were driven down to a score or numeral. Rote mechanized learning dose not produce creative and innovative students, rather they graduate as look-a-like- robots that couldn't find their own State on a map. Sort of like the song...Ticky Tacky Little Boxes. OK my age is showing:-)

Kudos for him. Although the copy/paste crown reduces it all to a bad PhotoShop image.

[StopThePlanet]

01:00 PM on 07/12/2010

It's more about polarization than nuance I think.

[Tblack]

02:25 PM on 07/12/2010

I think you're right. Either way we have ourselves an intellectual condom over our airspace.

[curiousasheck]

09:30 AM on 07/12/2010

Dust in the wind