Jeff Bezos
Jeffrey Preston Bezos (/ˈbeɪzoʊs/ BAY-zohss;[2] né Jorgensen; born January 12, 1964) is an American businessman, media proprietor and investor. He is the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon, the world's largest e-commerce and cloud computing company. He is the second wealthiest person in the world, with a net worth of about US$205 billion as of April 5, 2024.[3] He was also the wealthiest from 2017 to 2021, according to both the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and Forbes.[4]
"Bezos" redirects here. For other people with the surname, see Bezos (surname).
Jeff Bezos
- Businessman
- Media proprietor
- Investor
Founding Amazon
- Founder and executive chairman of Amazon
- Founder of Blue Origin
- Owner of The Washington Post
- Founder of Bezos Expeditions
- Executive Chair of Bezos Earth Fund
- Founder of Bezos Academy
Lauren Sánchez
(2019–present; engaged)
4
Mark Bezos (half-brother)[1]
Bezos was born in Albuquerque and raised in Houston and Miami. He graduated from Princeton University in 1986 with degrees in electrical engineering and computer science. He worked on Wall Street in a variety of related fields from 1986 to early 1994. Bezos founded Amazon in mid 1994 on a road trip from New York City to Seattle. The company began as an online bookstore and has since expanded to a variety of other e-commerce products and services, including video and audio streaming, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence. It is the world's largest online sales company, the largest Internet company by revenue, and the largest provider of virtual assistants and cloud infrastructure services through its Amazon Web Services branch.
Bezos founded the aerospace manufacturer and sub-orbital spaceflight services company Blue Origin in 2000. Blue Origin's New Shepard vehicle reached space in 2015 and afterwards successfully landed back on Earth; he flew into space on Blue Origin NS-16 in 2021. He also purchased the major American newspaper The Washington Post in 2013 for $250 million and manages many other investments through his venture capital firm, Bezos Expeditions. In September 2021, Bezos co-founded Altos Labs with Mail.ru founder Yuri Milner.[5]
The first centibillionaire on the Forbes Real Time Billionaires Index and the second ever to have eclipsed the feat since Bill Gates in 1999, Bezos was named the "richest man in modern history" after his net worth increased to $150 billion in July 2018.[6] In August 2020, according to Forbes, he had a net worth exceeding $200 billion. On July 5, 2021, Bezos stepped down as the CEO and president of Amazon and took over the role of executive chairman. Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy succeeded Bezos as the CEO and president of Amazon. In October 2023, he was ranked second on the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans, with a net worth of $161 billion.
Early life and education
Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen was born on January 12, 1964, in Albuquerque, New Mexico,[7] as the son of Jacklyn (née Gise) and Ted Jorgensen.[8] At the time of Jeff's birth, his mother was a 17-year-old high-school student and his father was 19 years old.[9] Jorgensen was a Danish American unicyclist[10] born in Chicago to a family of Baptists.[11] After completing high school despite challenging conditions, Jacklyn attended night school, bringing her baby with her.[12] Jeff attended a Montessori school in Albuquerque when he was 2 years old.[13]
Ted Jorgensen drank and struggled financially.[14] Jacklyn left her husband to live with her parents, filing for divorce in June 1965 when Jeff was 17 months old.[15] After his parents divorced, his mother married Cuban immigrant Miguel "Mike" Bezos in April 1968.[16] Shortly after the wedding, Mike adopted four-year-old Jeff, whose surname was then legally changed from Jorgensen to Bezos.[17] Gise, her husband and her son left the area and asked Jorgensen to discontinue contact, to which he agreed.[18]
After Mike had received his degree from the University of New Mexico, the family moved to Houston, Texas, so that he could begin working as an engineer for Exxon.[19] Jeff attended River Oaks Elementary School in Houston from fourth to sixth grade.[20] Jeff's maternal grandfather was Lawrence Preston Gise, a regional director of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in Albuquerque.[21] Lawrence retired early to his family's ranch near Cotulla, Texas, where Jeff would spend many summers in his youth.[22] Jeff would later purchase this ranch and expand it from 25,000 acres (10,117 ha) to 300,000 acres (121,406 ha).[23][24] Jeff displayed scientific interests and technological proficiency and once rigged an electric alarm to keep his younger siblings out of his room.[25][26] The family moved to Miami, Florida, where Jeff attended Miami Palmetto High School.[27][28] While Jeff was in high school, he worked at McDonald's as a short-order line cook during the breakfast shift.[29]
Bezos attended the Student Science Training Program at the University of Florida. He was high school valedictorian, a National Merit Scholar,[30][31] and a Silver Knight Award winner in 1982.[30] In his graduation speech, Bezos told the audience he dreamed of the day when mankind would colonize space. A local newspaper quoted his intention "to get all people off the earth and see it turned into a huge national park".[32]
After graduating from high school in 1982, Bezos attended Princeton University. He initially majored in physics but later switched to electrical engineering and computer science.[33] Bezos was a member of the Quadrangle Club, one of Princeton's 11 eating clubs.[34] In addition, he was the president of the Princeton chapter of the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS).[35][36] He had a 4.2 GPA and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi. Bezos graduated from Princeton in 1986 with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE), summa cum laude.[37]
Jeff Bezos
Business career
Early career
After Bezos graduated from college in 1986, he was offered jobs at Intel, Bell Labs, and Andersen Consulting, among others.[38] He first worked at Fitel, a fintech telecommunications start-up, where he was tasked with building a network for international trade.[39] Bezos was promoted to head of development and director of customer service thereafter. He transitioned into the banking industry when he became a product manager at Bankers Trust from 1988 to 1990. He then joined D. E. Shaw & Co, a newly created hedge fund with a strong emphasis on mathematical modelling from 1990 until 1994. Bezos became D. E. Shaw's fourth senior vice-president by age 30.[40][38]
Criticism
Bezos is known for creating an adversarial environment at Amazon, as well as insulting and verbally abusing his employees. As journalist Brad Stone revealed in his book The Everything Store, Bezos issued remarks to his employees such as "I'm sorry, did I take my stupid pills today?", "Are you lazy or just incompetent?", and "Why are you ruining my life?"[144] Additionally, Bezos reportedly pitted Amazon teams against each other, and once declined to give Amazon employees city bus passes in order to discourage them from leaving the office.[144]
Throughout his early years of ownership of The Washington Post, Bezos was accused of having a potential conflict of interest with the paper.[245] Bezos and the newspaper's editorial board have dismissed accusations that he unfairly controlled the paper's content, and Bezos maintains that the paper is independent.[246][116] Bezos' treatment of employees at The Washington Post has also drawn scrutiny.[247] In 2018, more than 400 Washington Post employees wrote an open letter to Bezos criticizing his poor wages and benefits for his employees. The letter demanded "Fair wages; fair benefits for retirement, family leave and health care; and a fair amount of job security".[247] Around 750 employees at The Washington Post went on a brief strike in December 2023 in response to Bezos' plans to lay off staff.[248]