Apple exec doesn't fall far from tree.

• Position: Resigned Apple Computer executive Greg Sobieski

Before he got involved with computers and software, Multimedia Design Corp.'s new president was into septic tanks.

As a high-school student in upstate Michigan, Greg Sobieski bought a backhoe and dump truck, hired somebody to drive them while he was at school and started his own business installing and repairing septic systems.

Sobieski, 46, started applying those same entrepreneurial skills at MDC -- maker of multimedia computer products -- in January, just a month after he was laid off his job as Apple Computer's Charlotte-based Southeast regional manager.

Apple's loss was MDC co-founder Tom Wheeler's gain. "Tom is the visionary," Sobieski says. "He came to me and said, 'You run the company. I just want to build great products.'"

When Wheeler came to Sobieski, he brought his company with him, moving its headquarters from Alexandria, Va., to Charlotte to be part of the Ben Craig Center, a small-business incubator, and be closer to its manufacturing facility in Raleigh. MDC has grown from a four-person operation with $6,397 in revenues in 1990 to a team of 15 with $1.8 million in revenues in 1993. MDC provides the tools companies need to make presentations with text...