Apple Exec Will Resign

Apple Computer Inc. said Tuesday that Chief Operating Officer George Scalise will resign after a little more than a year on the job, extending the list of top executives who have left the troubled company in the last year to half a dozen.

Scalise, who was responsible for managing Apple’s manufacturing operations, said he will become the president of the Semiconductor Industry Assn., the chip industry’s chief trade group.

“The main reason I’m leaving is that I had some objectives when I came here,” including figuring out how to manage Apple’s assets better, to get product development going again and to restructure the business, Scalise said. “That has been largely accomplished.”

Cupertino-based Apple will eliminate his position, he said.

Scalise was one of several executives who joined Apple shortly after Gilbert Amelio became Apple Chairman in February 1996.