Avie Tevanian

Avadis "Avie" Tevanian is a former Senior Vice President of Software Engineering at Apple Computer from 1997 to 2003, and a former Chief Software Technology Officer from 2003 to 2006. He is a member of the board of embedded software tools company Green Hills Software. Tevanian was responsible for setting company-wide software technology direction at Apple. At Apple, he was the primary figure in the development of Mac OS X.

Tevanian was the author of Mac Missiles, a popular clone of 80s arcade classic Missile Command, which he developed for the Macintosh platform. He is of Armenian descent.

Originally from Westbrook, Maine, Avie Tevanian received his B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Rochester, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University. Tevanian was an important figure in the development of the Mach kernel while at Carnegie Mellon; he later worked for NeXT Computer and later at Apple, both times brought over by Steve Jobs. In United States v. Microsoft, he was a witness for the United States Department of Justice, testifying against Microsoft.

Tevanian left Apple on March 31, 2006. In May 2006, it was announced that Tevanian had joined the board of Tellme Networks.

On January 12, 2010 private equity firm Elevation Partners announced that Tevanian joined the firm as Managing Director. Former Apple CFO Fred Anderson is a Managing Director and co-founder of Elevation Partners. He is quoted as saying:

"Avie and I worked closely together at Apple for many years and I have always admired his engineering talent and leadership, his strategic vision for how software can transform businesses and his ability to execute on that vision. We are proud that he has decided to join Elevation and believe he will be a huge asset as we explore new investment opportunities"