Jeff Bezos Biography
Jeff Bezos is an American entrepreneur, media proprietor, investor, and commercial astronaut. He is the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon. Bezos is the fifth-wealthiest person in the world and was the wealthiest from 2017 to 2021 according to both Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index and Forbes.
Jeff Bezos Age
Bezos is 60 years old as of 2023. He was born (Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen) on January 12, 1964, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. Bezos celebrates his birthday on the 12th of January every year.
Jeff Bezos Height
Bezos stands at an approximate height of 5 feet 8 inches.
Jeff Bezos Family
Bezos was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was born to his mother Jacklyn (née Gise) and his father Theodore Jørgensen. His mother was a 17-year-old high school student and his father was 19 years old at the time was born. Jørgensen was a Danish American and was born in Chicago to a family of Baptists.|F{ After completing high school despite challenging conditions, Jacklyn attended night school while bringing Bezos along as a baby.
His maternal grandfather was Lawrence Preston Gise who was a regional director of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in Albuquerque. He retired early to his family’s ranch near Cotulla, Texas, where Bezos would spend many summers in his youth. Bezos would later purchase this ranch and expand it from 25,000 acres (10,117 ha) to 300,000 acres (121,406 ha). He displayed scientific interests and technological proficiency and once rigged an electric alarm to keep his younger siblings out of his room. The family moved to Miami, Florida.
Jeff Bezos Ex-Wife/Divorce
Bezos was previously married to MacKenzie Scott. The two tied the knot in 1993 before divorcing in 2019. They met while working for D. E. Shaw in 1992 in Manhattan. Scott was a research associate at the firm. A year later they moved across the country to Seattle, Washington, where Bezos founded Amazon.
Jeff Bezos Daughter
Bezos has one daughter with his ex-wife. The daughter was adopted from China and joined Bezos’ three sons. Bezos has revealed her name to the public.
Jeff Bezos Kids/Children
Bezos and his now ex-wife MacKenzie are the parents of four children: three sons and one daughter adopted from China. His firstborn son is called Preston Bezos but the names of the other two sons and daughter remain unknown.
Jeff Bezos’ Girlfriend Lauren Sánchez
Bezos divorced his wife MacKenzie Scott and he got a girlfriend Lauren Sánchez. Lauren was born on December 19, 1969. She attended the University of Southern California, where she majored in Communications. In addition to that, she is a former reporter, Good Day LA anchor, and Extra correspondent. She also served as a guest host on The View, counting Barbara Walters as her mentor throughout her broadcasting career. Furthermore, Lauren hosted the first season of So You Think You Can Dance.
Previously, Lauren was married to Patrick Whitesell. Patrick was the executive chairman of the Endeavor talent agency, from 2005 to 2019. Together they share a son and a daughter. Prior to marrying Whitesell, she had a son with former NFL tight-end Tony Gonzalez in 2001. Lauren was reportedly engaged to NYPD Blue actor Henry Simmons, sports broadcaster Rory Malkas, and NFL star Anthony Miller. Furthermore, she dated Derek Fisher.
Jeff Bezos Net Worth
Bezos has an estimated net worth ranging between $122.4 Billion which he has earned from his successful career as an entrepreneur, media proprietor, investor, and commercial astronaut.
Jeff Bezos Education
Bezos attended a Montessori school in Albuquerque, New Mexico when he was two years old. Later attended River Oaks Elementary School in Houston from fourth to sixth grade. He also attended Miami Palmetto High School. While in high school, he worked at McDonald’s as a short-order line cook during the breakfast shift. From there, he earned a degree from the University of New Mexico.
He attended the Student Science Training Program at the University of Florida. Furthermore, he was a Silver Knight Award winner in 1982, a National Merit Scholar, and a high school valedictorian. In 1986, he graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University with a 4.2 GPA and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree (B.S.E.) in electrical engineering and computer science. While there, he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and a member of the Quadrangle Club, one of Princeton’s 11 eating clubs. In addition to that, he was elected to Tau Beta Pi and was the president of the Princeton chapter of the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS).
Jeff Bezos Career
His family moved to Houston, Texas so that his step-father begin working as an engineer for Exxon. This was after his step-father Mike, received his degree from the University of New Mexico. While there, Bezos displayed scientific interests and technological proficiency and once rigged an electric alarm to keep his younger siblings out of his room. In 1986, Bezos graduated from college and he was offered jobs at Intel, Bell Labs, and Andersen Consulting, among others.
First, he worked at Fitel, a fintech telecommunications start-up. While there, he was entrusted with building a network for international trade. Later he was elevated to head of development and director of customer service. From 1988 to 1990, he transitioned into the banking industry where he became a product manager at Bankers Trust. He then joined D. E. Shaw & Co, a newly created hedge fund with a strong emphasis on mathematical modeling from 1990 until 1994. By the age of 30, he became D. E. Shaw’s fourth senior vice president.
Jeff Bezos Amazon
Bezos always has a sharp mind, in late 1993 he read that the Internet was growing at a rate of 2300% a year. He decided to establish an online bookstore. He came together with his then-wife MacKenzie Scott, left their jobs at D. E. Shaw, and founded Amazon in a rented garage in Bellevue, Washington on July 5, 1994. This was after writing its business plan on a cross-country drive from New York City to Seattle.
Bezos was at the helm while Scott was taking an integral role in its operation, negotiating the company’s first freight contracts, keeping track of the books, and writing checks. The foundation was laid for this garage-run operation to grow exponentially.
Jeff Bezos Altos Labs
Bezos is the owner of Altos Labs, a generously funded biotechnology company dedicated to harnessing cellular reprogramming to develop longevity therapeutics. Its goal is to develop life-extension therapies that can halt or reverse the human aging processBezos co-founded Altos Labs with Mail.ru founder Yuri Milner in September 2021. The company has recruited prominent scientists such as Shinya Yamanaka (the Nobel Prize-winning inventor of cellular reprogramming in mammalian cells), Steve Horvath (known for work in epigenetic aging clocks), and Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte (known for work on rejuvenation through reprogramming).
The board of directors also includes well-known scientists such as Jennifer A. Doudna, David Baltimore, and Frances Arnold. Salaries for principal investigators at Altos Labs may be ten times higher than at comparable research institutions. In 2021, Altos Labs was registered in the United States and the United Kingdom. It will operate out of California (U.S.) and Cambridge (U.K.), with some work performed in Japan. The company left stealth mode and launched on January 19, 2022, with a start capital of $3 billion and an executive team led by Hal Barron.
Jeff Bezos Space Company (Blue Origin)
Bezos founded Blue Origin (human spaceflight startup) in September 2000. Blue Origin is a privately funded aerospace manufacturer and sub-orbital spaceflight services company headquartered in Kent, Washington. His 1982 high school valedictorian senior graduation speech was followed up with a Miami Herald interview in which he expressed an interest to build and develop hotels, amusement parks, and colonies for human beings who were in orbit.
He stated that he wanted to preserve Earth from overuse through resource depletion. During that time, he was only 18 years old. He has long expressed an interest in space travel and the development of human life in the Solar System. From 2003 to 2017, Rob Meyerson led Blue Origin and served as its first president.
Jeff Bezos The Washington Post
Bezos announced his purchase of The Washington Post on August 5, 2013, for $250 million in cash at the suggestion of his friend, Don Graham. The Washington Post is a daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. He established a limited liability company Nash Holdings to serve as a holding company through which he would own the newspaper to execute the sale. On October 1, 2013, the sale closed and Nash Holdings took control.
Bezos made his first significant change at The Washington Post in March 2014 and lifted the online paywall for subscribers of a number of U.S. local newspapers in Texas, Hawaii, and Minnesota. Bezos set out to reinvent the newspaper as a media and technology company in January 2016 by reconstructing its digital media, analytics software, and mobile platforms.
Jeff Bezos Philanthropy
Bezos plans to give away the majority of his $124 billion net worth during his lifetime, telling CNN in an exclusive interview he will devote the bulk of his wealth to fighting climate change and supporting people who can unify humanity in the face of deep social and political divisions. He has donated most of his billions to fight climate change and address political and social divisiveness in the world. His largest charitable donation prior to the Earth Fund was a $2 billion gift to help homeless families and to start preschools.
Who Is Jeff Bezos?
Bezos is the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon. He is also the founder of Space Company (Blue Origin).
Is Jeff Bezos Jewish?
Bezos holds an American nationality.
How Rich Is Jeff Bezos?
Bezos first became a millionaire in 1997 after raising $54 million through Amazon’s initial public offering (IPO). He was first included on the Forbes World’s Billionaires list in 1999 with a registered net worth of $10.1 billion. His wealth continued to rise year after the year. On March 6, 2018, Bezos was designated the wealthiest person in the world with a registered net worth of $112 billion. He unseated Bill Gates ($90 billion) who was $6 billion ahead of Warren Buffett ($84 billion), who ranked third. As of February 2023, he is the third-wealthiest person in the world and was the wealthiest from 2017 to 2021 according to both Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index and Forbes.
Jeff Bezos New Yacht
Bezos is the owner of the Y721, a luxury superyacht estimated to cost more than $500,000,000. Once built, it will be the largest yacht in the world.
Jeff Bezos Awards and Recognition
- In 1999, Bezos received his first major award when Time named him Person of the Year.
- In 2008, he was selected by U.S. News & World Report as one of America’s best leaders.
- Bezos was awarded an honorary doctorate in science and technology from Carnegie Mellon University in 2008.
- In 2011, The Economist gave Bezos and Gregg Zehr an Innovation Award for the Amazon Kindle.
- In 2012, Bezos was named Businessperson of the Year by Fortune.
- He is also a member of the Bilderberg Group and attended the 2011 Bilderberg conference in St. Moritz, Switzerland, and the 2013 conference in Watford, Hertfordshire, England.
- He was a member of the executive committee of The Business Council in 2011 and 2012.
- 2014–2018, Harvard Business Review ranked him the best-performing CEO in the world.
- He has also figured in Fortune’s list of 50 great leaders of the world for three straight years, topping the list in 2015.
- In September 2016, Bezos received a $250,000 prize for winning the Heinlein Prize for Advances in Space Commercialization, which he donated to the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space.
- In February 2018, Bezos was elected to the National Academy of Engineering for “leadership and innovation in space exploration, autonomous systems, and building a commercial pathway for human space flight”.
- In March 2018, at the Explorers Club annual dinner, he was awarded the Buzz Aldrin Space Exploration Award in recognition of his work with Blue Origin.
- He received Germany’s 2018 Axel Springer Award for Business Innovation and Social Responsibility. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world on five separate occasions between 2008 and 2018.