Do you know who is behind the international Internet retail giant that has changed the way consumers buy books, music, DVDs, toys, electronics, sporting goods and practically anything else. Yes none other than Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen commonly known as Jeff Bezos.
Who is Jeff Bezos?
Jeff Bezos is an American Entrepreneur and e-commerce pioneer. He is the founder and CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of “Amazon” the e-commerce website, and owner of ‘The Washington Post.’ He is one of the richest people in the world who got successful through his business ventures.
- Before founding Amazon.com in 1994 (originally Cadabra), Jeff was a senior vice-president with Wall Street firm D.E. Shaw.
- He holds a BS in electrical engineering and computer science from Princeton University, as well as an MBA from Harvard Business School.
- Jeff remains interested in both technology and business, even outside of his work at Amazon. And he has become active with several charities, including the Bezos Family Foundation that supports children’s education. Jeff is also an avid sailor with a passion for racing.
- He competed in the 2003 America’s Cup as part of the GBR Challenge.
Jeff Bezos Early Life
Jeff Bezos was born on January 12, 1964 at Albuquerque, New Mexico as Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen. Jacklyn Gise Jorgensen, mother of Jeff Bezos was a teenager when she gave birth to Jeff Bezos. The father of Jeff’s biological mother was Ted Jorgensen who was a owner of a bike shop. The couple divorced and Jeff was just four year old at the time his mom got married to Cuban immigrants Mike Bezos. The young Jorgensen became the adopted child of Mike and his surname altered to Bezos. Jeff was a frequent visitor to youth summers on the family ranch in Cotulla, Texas, where his maternal grandfather Lawrence Preston Gise used to live after retiring in the role of regional director for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in Albuquerque. Jeff had a love of computers and was proficient with science from the time he was a child.
Jeff Bezos Education
From fourth through the sixth grade Bezos was a student at River Oaks Elementary School. Bezos was a student at Miami Palmetto High School following his family relocated into Miami, Florida. He was employed at McDonald’s in the morning shift during his time at high school. In 1986, he graduated from Princeton University with a 4.2 GPA (Grade Point Average) for a Bachelor of Science in electrical and computer engineering.
Jeff Bezos Career
- Bezos family relocated from New York to Miami, Florida.He attended Miami Palmetto Senior High School. He also participated in an Student Science Training Program at the University of Florida, and was awarded the Silver Knight Award in 1982.
- In high school, the entrepreneur started his first venture that was called The Dream Institute, an educational summer camp for fourth sixth and fifth year olds.He was a valedictorian of the high school.
- He graduated in 1982 and enrolled at Princeton University, where he was a computer science student.He was selected into the honor society Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi at Princeton.
- He was known to work summer work.Then, in the month of June 1984, he got the position of a summer Analyst/Programmer in Norway and, the following year, he redesigned his IBM Program in California.
- He was president of Princeton’ Students for the Exploration and Development of Space.He graduated in 1986. received his in summa cum laude with an B.Sc. with a major in Electrical Engineering as well as Computer Science.
- After graduating, he was employed in various firms that were on Wall Street, such as Fitel Bankers Trust, and the investment company D.E.
- He was a part of D. E. Shaw & Co, New York in 1990.He was an extremely young Vice-President in the company. His finance career was very lucrative, but he decided to retire after four years.
- The year 1995 was the time he established Amazon.com which is an online store.Market analysts were initially skeptical about the success of the company compared to traditional retailers however, soon he was able to outdo the competition. In 1997 the company went public.
- In the course of time, Amazon started to diversify its offerings.In 1998, the company began selling videos and CDs, and in 2002, the company also added clothes to its inventory.
Amazon.com
in 1993 Bezos quit his position at D.E. Shaw & Co and decided to open an online book shop. The office was established in his garage and he had only a handful of employees. The operation grew to include two bedrooms and 3 Sun Micro stations installed where a testing site was designed. On the 16th of July, 1995, 300 people were invited to visit the site, and after that Amazon.com was launched. The company was immediately successful because Amazon.com was able to sell books across the US and 45 other countries in just 30 days. The expansion of the company was more rapid than what Bezos or his company anticipated and sales exceeded 20000$ weekly in only two months. A few years later, the company beat its competitors and was able to become an industry leader in e-commerce. Amazon offers were broadened by Bezos who began selling of DVDs and CDs in 1998. Electronics as well as toys, clothing and other items were later added through major retail partnership. Amazon sales increased between $510,000 and and grew to $17 billion in 2011.
Kindle was launched from the company in 2007 as a digital book reader that users were able to download and read and save their library of books. The identical year Bezos made a bet in Blue Origin which is a Seattle company based in Seattle. It is an Aerospace company which develops technology to provide space travel to customers who pay. Bezos has helped Amazon move into the tablet market with the release of Amazon Kindle Fire in 2000. The company’s new-generation tablet Kindle Fire HD was designed to offer Apple Ipad an opportunity to compete with its money. World-wide headlines were written by Bezos on the 5th of August 2013. He bought The Washington Post and other publications associated with The Post’s parent company, The Washington Post Co. for $250 million. The four-generation rule of Graham family members Graham family on The Post Co. came to an end. Bezos created an innovative initiative named “Amazon Prime Air” which utilized drones to deliver services offered by Amazon. The drones can weigh up 5 pounds and be able to travel for about 10 miles away from the distribution centre, as per Bezos. Bezos also stated that the drones could be an actuality in the next five years.
Awards & Achievements
- Bezos was given an honorary doctorate for his work in Science and Technology from Carnegie Mellon University in the year 2008.He was also recognized in 2008 by U.S. News & World Report as one of America’s most effective leaders.
- In 2011 The Economist gave Bezos and Gregg Zehr an Innovation Award for the Amazon Kindle.The next year, he won the Entrepreneur of The year by Fortune.
- In December 2012 Amazon was named the top retailer of 2012. National Retail Federation named Amazon as the best retailer of the year and gave Amazon with the Gold Medal Award, given to individuals who have served the industry with distinction.
Jeff Bezos Family & Kids
Jeff Bezos is married to novelist MacKenzie Bezos. They have four children, including three sons and one daughter. Jeff also has another daughter from a previous relationship with former girlfriend Rebecca J. “Randi” Wexler. He lives in Seattle, Washington.
Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos have a prenuptial agreement. They went to marriage counselling before they wed, but it didn’t work, so they got divorced in January of 2019.
In 1999, Jeff Bezos became the first person to purchase a $10 million (US) 767 as a pleasure boat for his wife. That was just an initial payment on the aircraft that he now has available from his Amazon profits. In fact, one reason why he started Amazon was because he wanted to earn enough money to buy the airplane and still have enough left over for a very large home and other luxuries (which means things like expensive toys and expensive clothes). He also owns two other estates: one in Beverly Hills, California and another in Washington, DC.
Jeff and his wife MacKenzie announced that they would be getting a divorce in early 2019 (a statement which some claim was only made public because Jeff Bezos wanted people to think he wasn’t gay). If their divorce is finalized, Jeff will lose half of his $ 100 billion dollar fortune. However, since his soon-to-be ex-wife has an estimated net worth of $36.7 billion there won’t be too much of a financial impact for either party involved.
MacKenzie is an American novelist whose work has been published under her maiden name: MacKenzie Tuttle. Some sources state that she spent her childhood in San Antonio, Texas and later moved to New York City where she attended Barnard College. She has been married once before to a man who also happened to be her high school sweetheart.
Jeff Bezos Net Worth
In 2018, Jeff Bezos is ranked as the richest man in the world, with a net worth of more than $135 billion. That’s more money than some countries GDPs! In fact, that’s about as much as the entire economy of Switzerland or some small oil-rich nations like Brunei and Kuwait. But it doesn’t even put a dent in his overall wealth because his company Amazon alone has a market value of about half a trillion dollars. He also owns shares of other companies such as Airbnb and Uber, so he has a piece of those companies’ profits too.
Not only does he own these stocks himself but by owning them through multiple holding companies (such as Nash Holdings LLC), his family members haveJeff Bezos Net Worth also reaped Jeff’s profits through dividends and other distributions.
Jeff Bezos Salary
Back when Jeff Bezos was still working at D.E. Shaw, he started an email correspondence with MacKenzie Tuttle who was a research associate in the firm. He asked her to join him for dinner one night, but she declined because they had already gone out on a date when she worked in the finance department of the investment banking division of Bankers Trust where Jeff used to work. But they eventually did go out again, got married, and now have four children together!
Jeff is currently taking home about $100 million dollars per year in stock awards. That’s how much money he makes every month thanks to his 14 percent ownership stake in Amazon (which is about $33 billion). MacKenzie Bezos’ net worth of $36.7 billion (2018) makes her the third richest woman in the world.
Assuming they put all of that money into a trust for their children, Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos could get away with spending $900 million per year on their kids. That’s more than the GDP of some countries! It would be hard to even imagine spending that much money.
Jeff Bezos is currently worth about $140 billion (US). He was the richest man in the world at one point with a total net worth of over $150 billion US dollars. That made him richer even than Bill Gates!
NOTE: If Jeff’s combined net worth with his wife were combined, then their resources would be around $160-$170 billion US dollars.
Jeff Bezos Business Motivational Quotes
- “A company shouldn’t get addicted to being shiny because shiny doesn’t last.”
- “If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.” -Jeff Bezos
- “If you don’t understand the details of your business you are going to fail.”
- “If you’re competitor focused, you have to wait until there is a competitor doing something. Being customer-focused allows you to be more pioneering.
- “Keep our competitors focused on us, while we stay focused on the customer.”
Books on Jeff Bezos
· Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire
By Brad Stone
· Jeff Bezos: The Force Behind the Brand: Insight and Analysis into the Life and Accomplishments of the Richest Man on the Planet (Billionaire Visionaries)
By JR Macgregor
· Jeff Bezos: Biography of a Billionaire Business Titan
By Elliot Reynold
· The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
By Brad Stone
