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Schmidt, who also sits on Google's board and Princeton University's board of trustees, joins current Apple directors Steve Jobs, former US vice-president Al Gore, Intuit chairman Bill Campbell, J Crew CEo Millard Drexler, Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson, Harwinton Capital CEO Jerry York and former Apple CFO Fred Anderson.

'Eric is obviously doing a terrific job as CEO of Google, and we look forward to his contributions as a member of Apple's board of directors'

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said Jobs, Apple's CEO. 'Like Apple, Google is very focused on innovation and we think Eric's insights and experience will be very valuable in helping to guide Apple in the years ahead.'

Schmidt said that Apple is one of the companies in the world that he most admires.

'I'm really looking forward to working with Steve and Apple's board to help with all of the amazing things Apple is doing,' he said.

Schmidt joined Google from Novell, where he was chairman and CEO, and has 20 years of experience as an Internet strategist, entrepreneur and technologist, including a stint as chief technology officer at Sun Microsystems, where he led the development of Java.

Prior to joining Sun he was a member of the research staff at the Computer Science Lab at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), which has its own unique place in Apple's history as the place where Jobs first saw a graphical user interface for operating a computer.