Armas Clifford "Mike" Markkula, Jr. (born February 11, 1942) is an American entrepreneur who was an angel investor and second CEO of Apple Computer, Inc., providing early critical funding and managerial support. He was introduced to Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak when they were looking for funding to manufacture the Apple II personal computer they had developed, after having sold some units of the first version of this computer, the Apple I. With this guidance and funding, Apple ceased to be a partnership and was incorporated as a company.

Markkula received Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California. He made millions on stock options he acquired as a marketing manager for Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel, and retired at 32.

He was lured out of retirement by Steve Jobs, who was referred to him by Regis McKenna and venture capitalist Don Valentine. Valentine—who after meeting the young, unkempt Jobs asked McKenna, "Why did you send me this renegade from the human race?"—was not interested in funding Apple, but mentioned Jobs' new company to Markkula. Jobs visited him and convinced Markkula of the market for the Apple II and personal computers in general. In 1977, Markkula brought his business expertise along with US$250,000 ($80,000 as an equity investment in the company and $170,000 as a loan) and became a one-third owner of Apple and employee number 3.

Dermot Mulroney (born October 31, 1963) is an American actor.

Mulroney was born in Alexandria, Virginia. His mother, Ellen, was a housewife and amateur actress originally from Manchester, Iowa, and his father, Michael Mulroney, was a law professor (and amateur racecar driver) at Villanova University School of Law, originally from Elkader, Iowa. He has a sister, Moira, and three brothers, Conor, Kieran (who is also an actor), and Sean. Moira formerly worked in the Philadelphia DA's office as an assistant district attorney and later at WXPN, an FM radio station in Philadelphia, but now works elsewhere in the non-profit industry. Some of Mulroney's ancestors immigrated from County Donegal and County Mayo in Ireland during the Irish Potato Famine; he is of mostly Irish descent, with more distant German ancestry. Mulroney attended Maury Elementary School and played cello in school and city youth orchestras, as well as acting in children's community theater. Mulroney attended the Interlochen Arts Camp as a cellist. He later attended T. C. Williams High School (grad. 1981), the high school portrayed in Remember the Titans, as well as Northwestern University (grad. 1985) in Evanston, Illinois, where he was a member of the fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta.

Steven Paul "Steve" Jobs (/ˈdʒɒbz/; February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, designer and inventor. He is best known as the co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc. Through Apple, he was widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution and for his influential career in the computer and consumer electronics fields. Jobs also co-founded and served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios; he became a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company in 2006, when Disney acquired Pixar.

In the late 1970s, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak engineered one of the first commercially successful lines of personal computers, the Apple II series. Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of Xerox PARC's mouse-driven graphical user interface, which led to the creation of the Apple Lisa and, one year later, the Macintosh. During this period he also led efforts that would begin the desktop publishing revolution, notably through the introduction of the LaserWriter and the associated PageMaker software.

William Henry "Bill" Gates III (born October 28, 1955 in Seattle, Washington) is an American business magnate, computer programmer and philanthropist. Gates is the former chief executive officer (CEO) and current chairman of Microsoft, the world’s largest personal-computer software company he co-founded with Paul Allen. He is consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people and was the wealthiest overall from 1995 to 2009, excluding 2008, when he was ranked third; in 2011 he was the wealthiest American and the second wealthiest person. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of CEO and chief software architect, and remains the largest individual shareholder, with 6.4 percent of the common stock. He has also authored or co-authored several books.

Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. Gates has been criticized for his business tactics, which have been considered anti-competitive, an opinion which has in some cases been upheld by the courts. In the later stages of his career, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, established in 2000.

Christopher Ashton Kutcher (/ˈkʊtʃər/; born February 7, 1978), best known as Ashton Kutcher, is an American actor, producer, former fashion model, and comedian, known for his portrayal of Michael Kelso in the Fox sitcom That '70s Show. He also created, produced and hosted Punk'd, and played lead roles in the Hollywood films Dude, Where's My Car?, Just Married, The Butterfly Effect, The Guardian, and What Happens in Vegas. He is also the producer and co-creator of the supernatural TV show Room 401 and the reality TV show Beauty and the Geek. Kutcher currently co-stars in the hit CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men as the character Walden Schmidt.

Kutcher was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He is the son of Diane (née Finnegan), a Procter & Gamble employee, and Larry M. Kutcher, a factory worker. His father is of Bohemian (Czech) descent and his mother is of Irish, German, and Bohemian ancestry. Kutcher was raised in a conservative Roman Catholic family, with an older sister, Tausha, and a fraternal twin, Michael, who had a heart transplant when the brothers were young children. Kutcher's twin brother also has cerebral palsy and is a spokesperson for the advocacy organization Reaching for the Stars.