Steve Ballmer Signs Student’s Windows-Powered MacBook Pro

January 25, 2010 By Dena Cassella

Steve Ballmer makes his mark on a student's MacBook Pro while in Tennessee.

While visiting Nashville, Tenn. this week for the Nashville Technology Council’s annual meeting, Steve Ballmer slipped his signature onto a college kid’s MacBook Pro. Ballmer was meeting with a group of students at Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville when one approached him and asked the age-old question: “Mr. Ballmer, would you sign my laptop?” The Microsoft exec turned around to see the kid shoving a silver-cased MacBook Pro in his direction. “It’s got Windows on it,” the student said, “I promise.”

Ballmer laughs as he signs the student’s MacBook Pro with a big black marker—Ballmer signs his name and then writes “need a new one?” on the Apple laptop as well. The kid also posted an image of Ballmer’s handy work on his website, seen in the picture above. Oh Ballmer, such a cheeky CEO…

Check out the video.

Showing 5 comments

Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer talks Windows Phone 7, Ray Ozzie, and retirement at 10:34am 21st October 2010 [...] today.Steve Ballmer is not a shy CEO. From his famous “developers” speech to his Macbook Pro signing, Ballmer shows he isn’t afraid to be goofy or intense if the moment serves it. At his keynote [...]
johnhandcock at 11:35am 25th January 2010 The article was updated. In the original post, Dena mentioned Ballmer putting his "John Handcock" on the laptop. James and dang must have only seen the post after it was updated.
dang at 8:55am 25th January 2010 Not sure where you got John Handcock, but in the US a John Hancock is a synonym for signature.
James at 8:51am 25th January 2010 Huh? Are you retarded, that made no sense.
johnhandcock at 8:15am 25th January 2010 John Handcock? You might as well have written Herbie. An easy to remember rule for reviewing e-mails, blog posts etc. is "read twice, send or post once." Did anyone read this post before publishing?