This week in Davenport, Glen Miranker came to the college to talk about his professional experiences. After co-founding and/or serving in executive positions at several Silicon Valley start-ups, Miranker was invited by Steve Jobs to join Next Computer in 1990 and Apple Computer in 1996. For most of his tenure at Apple, he ran hardware development and served as Apple’s Chief Technology Officer (Hardware), retiring in 2004. Miranker now devotes himself to book collecting, lecturing and assisting special collections departments and boards. He also collects and lectures on the history of cryptography and is a director of the National Cryptologic Foundation.

He talked about his time working with Steve Jobs where he quoted him as saying that taking a year off was a “f**king stupid idea” and his experience curating exhibitions for Sir Arthur C. Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes at Harvard and for city of London. With respect to his work with Apple, he spoke about his particularity for wanting the devices to be perfect. Everything counted; the form and function of the machine and he became infected with the religion of trying to mold a better device that helps people in profound ways.