By AppleInsider Staff

Published: 05:30 PM EST (02:30 PM PST)

Apple Computer on Tuesday said Google chief executive officer Eric Schmidt will join its board of directors.

The addition of Schmidt, approved during a Apple board meeting on Tuesday, increases the Cupertino, Calif.-based company's director head-count to eight.

Schmidt also sits on Google’s board of directors and Princeton University’s board of trustees. He joins other Apple board members that include: former Vice President of the United States, Al Gore Jr.; President and CEO of Harwinton Capital, Jerry York; Chairman and CEO of Genentech, Arthur Levinson; Chairman and CEO J. Crew, Millard Drexler; Chairman and former CEO of Intuit, Bill Campbell, former CFO of Apple, Fred Anderson; and Apple CEO, Steve Jobs.

"Apple is one of the companies in the world that I most admire," said Eric Schmidt. "I'm really looking forward to working with Steve and Apple’s board to help with all of the amazing things Apple is doing."

Schmidt joined Google from Novell, where he was chairman and CEO. At Google, he shares responsibility for Google’s day-to-day operations, and is focused on building the corporate infrastructure needed to maintain Google’s rapid growth while ensuring that quality remains high and product development times are kept to a minimum.

"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," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs. "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."

Prior to joining Novell, Schmidt was chief technology officer at Sun Microsystems, Inc., where he led the development of Java, Sun’s platform-independent programming technology, and defined Sun’s Internet software strategy. He was also previously a member of the research staff at the Computer Science Lab at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), and held positions at Bell Laboratories and Zilog.

Schmidt holds a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University, and a master’s and Ph.D. in computer science from the University of California-Berkeley. In 2006, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, which recognized his work on "the development of strategies for the world’s most successful Internet search engine company."