Jeff Bezos | Biography, Amazon, Facts & Business Career

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Jeff Bezos is an American Entrepreneur and is best known as co-founder of the e-commerce company Amazon. He founded the space exploration company 'Blue Origin' and is the owner of The Washington Post. Under the guidance of Jeff Bezos, Amazon became the largest retailer on the World Wide Web. His successful business venture made him one of the world's richest people of the present time.

Full Name: Jeff Bezos
Net worth: 13,470 crores USD (2022) Forbes, Trending
Born: 12 January 1964 (age 58 years), Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
Spouse: MacKenzie Scott (m. 1993–2019)
Children: Preston Bezos
Education: Princeton University (1982–1986), Miami Palmetto Senior High School (1982), River Oaks Elementary School
Parents: Ted Jorgensen, Miguel Bezos, Jacklyn Bezos

Early life and Education

Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen was born on 12 January 1964, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. At the time of his birth, his mother, 'Jacklyn Gise Jorgensen, was a teenager and Ted Jorgensen was his biological father. When Jeff was four years old, his mother Jacklyn Gise, remarried Mike Bezos, 1968, who was a Cuban immigrant.

After marriage Mike adopted Jeffrey and then his surname changed legally from Jorgensen to Bezos. When Jeff's father Mike had received his degree from the University of New Mexico, the family moved to Houston, Texas, so that Mike could start working as an engineer for Exxon. After moving to Texas, Jeff attended 'River Oaks Elementary School' in Houston from fourth to sixth grade.

Bezos's grandfather, Lawrence Preston Gise, was a regional director of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission in Albuquerque. After retirement, Gise moved to his family's farms near Cotulla, Texas, where Bezos would spend many summers in his youth. Bezos has an interest in technology and displayed scientific interests and technological proficiency, once rigged an electric alarm to keep his younger siblings out of his room. The family moved to Miami, Florida, where Bezos developed his interest in computers and he attended Miami Palmetto High School. While Bezos was in high school, he worked at McDonald's.

When Bezos came to the University of Florida, he attended the Student Science Training Program. Bezos graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University with a 4.2 GPA in 1986 and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree in electrical engineering and computer science.

Business career

(i). Amazon.com

Jeff Bezos founded Amazon on 05 July 1994, in his garage. Bezos initially named his company 'Cadabra' but later changed the name to Amazon on the name of the South American river Amazon. He take the name of the world's largest river with the hope that his website would become the world's largest book store. Bezos accepted an estimate from his parents which was worth $300,000 and invested in Amazon. Even though Amazon was originally an online bookstore, Bezos had always had a plan to expand to other products.

In 1998, Bezos diversified into the online sale of music and video. At the end of 1998, Bezos had expanded the company's product to include a variety of other consumer commodities. In 2000, Bezos borrowed $2 billion from banks and in 2002, Bezos led the launch of Amazon Web Services, which compiled data from weather channels and website traffic, this caused financial distress when revenues stagnated. In the start of 2003, Amazon rebounded from financial instability with a profit of $400 million.

In 2007, Amazon launched the Amazon Kindle. Amazon Kindle is a handheld digital book reader that allowed users to buy, read, download, and store their book selections. In October 2013, Amazon was recognized as the largest online shopping retailer in the world.

In December 2013, Bezos revealed a new, experimental initiative by Amazon, called "Amazon Prime Air". It uses drones to provide delivery services to customers. These drones are able to carry items weighing up to five pounds and are capable of traveling within a 10-mile distance of the company's distribution center.

(ii). Blue Origin

Bezos has an interest in space travel and the development of human life in the Solar System. Bezos founded Blue Origin, in September 2000. Blue Origin is an aerospace company that develops technologies to lower the cost of space travel to make it accessible to paying customers. In 2015, Bezos announced that a new orbital launch vehicle was under development.

In 2016, Bezos invited select reporters to visit the headquarters of Blue Origin, in Kent, Washington, and see his facilities. In December 2017, New Shepard successfully flew and landed dummy passengers, amending and pushing its human space travel start date. Bezos had also maintained that the goal of Blue Origin is to preserve the natural resources of Earth by making the human species multi-planetary.

Bezos announced that New Shepard would begin transporting humans into sub-orbital space by November 2018. In early 2018, it was announced that Bezos had priced spaceflight tickets from $200,000 to $300,000 per person. Bezos launched the NS-16 mission with Wally Funk, Oliver Daemen, and his brother Mark Bezos, On 20July 2021.

(iii). Owner of The Washington Post

On 05 August 2013, Bezos made worldwide headlines, by announcing his purchase of The Washington Post for $250 million. In early 2016, the organization said it was profitable, and in the same year, Post had ad revenue of more than $100 million. Amazon soon bypassed The New York Times digital in unique users.

(iv). Bezos day foundation

In 2018, Bezos along with his wife MacKenzie, launched the Bezos Day One Fund. Bezos day foundation works for "funding existing non-profits that help homeless families and it also funds the creation of non-profit tier-one preschools for low-income communities.

(v). Charitable Works

In the time period between 2009 to 2017, Bezos donated to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, several times. In 2013, he pledged $500,000 to Worldreader, a non-profit founded by a former Amazon. In 2017, Bezos gave $1 million to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

(vi). Stepping down as CEO of Amazon

In February 2021, Bezos announced that he will step down as CEO of Amazon in the third quarter of the year and he will transition to the executive chair of Amazon's board.

Personal Information

Bezos and MacKenzie met when they both worked at D.E. Shaw, where Bezos was a senior vice president. The couple dated for three months before getting engaged and married in 1993. Mackenzie always supported Amazon and her husband. MacKenzie was quiet books and published her first book with the title "The Testing of Luther Albright" in 2005, and her second novel "Traps" in 2013. The couple has four children three sons with a daughter who is adopted from China. In January 2019, After more than 25 years of marriage, Bezos and MacKenzie get divorced.

Forbes

Bezos surpassed the founder of Microsoft 'Bill Gates' On 27 July 2017, when his net worth increased by just over $90 billion. On 24 November 2017, his net worth surpassed $100 billion for the first time. On 06 March 2018, Bezos was formally designated the wealthiest person in the world by Forbes, with a net worth of $112 billion. He remained in the position of the wealthiest person in the world up to early 2021 when he was surpassed by American Entrepreneur Elon Musk. net as of 2021 is $210.7 Billion.