Meet Chris Espinosa: Apple's longest-serving employee who joined firm at 14

When Steve Jobs left Apple in 1985 to launch education computer company NeXT, Chris Espinosa was a senior employee at Apple.

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs hired Chris Espinosa when he was 14 and still in school which makes him the tech giant's longest-serving employee. Chris Espinosa joined Apple in 1977 and initially started working part-time in the company. The company was incorporated in 1977 by Steve Jobs and Steve 'Woz' Wozniak, after which Chris Espinosa became an official employee- employee number 8 of the company.

Apple was incorporated in 1977 by Steve Jobs and Steve 'Woz' Wozniak, after which Chris Espinosa became an official employee- employee number 8 of the company.

At the time, Chris Espinosa tested the Apple II BASIC operating system during his Christmas holidays. When Steve Jobs left Apple in 1985 to launch education computer company NeXT, Chris Espinosa was a senior employee at Apple and held the position even after Steve Jobs returned to the company in 1997.

In an interview, Chris Espinosa talked about the success of the company and its marketing principles saying, “There were three words. Empathy: know your customer, know what they want. Focus: do fewer things better. And impute: always carry value in everything you do. Those are things that we do today.”

In a different interview he talked about Steve Jobs and said, “He's a maniac... a maniacal genius. His job is to stir up everything... He will not leave anything alone. He will not allow inadequacy or compromise to exist.”

Earlier this year, Chris Espinosa flagged a fake vintage Apple employee badge on eBay and said, “That wasn’t taken with a Polaroid with a flash. The laminate dimensions are all wrong. That’s a computer font, not an IBM Selectric Orator-type ball. That's not my original sketch which was on a national engineering pad.”