Jeff Bezos he is one of the richest and most influential men in the world, best known for being the “father” of Amazonthe e-commerce which, under his leadership, has revolutionized the way we shop. Also a visionary in the space sector, Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000 and acquired the Washington Post in 2013. Jeff Bezos’ net worth was currently estimated by Forbes in 213.5 billion dollarsranking in The World’s real-time Billionaires as third richest person in the world After Elon Musk ($334.3 billion) e Larry Ellison ($235.3 billion). Let’s retrace the fundamental stages of his life.
- 1Early life and education
- 2The birth of Amazon.com
- 3BlueOrigin and the purchase of the Washington Post
- 4Honorary awards and degrees
Early life and education
To read Bezos’ biography from the right perspective, we must start from his early years of life e instructionand this essentially applies to any character you want to know in more depth. Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen (this is Jeff’s first name) was born on January 12, 1964 in the city of Albuquerquein New Mexico, from Jacklyn Gisea seventeen-year-old high school student, and Ted Jorgensena boy a little older than her. Their marriage lasted just a year and in April 1968, when Jeff was 4 years old, his mother remarried Miguel Bezosa Cuban immigrant who came to the United States at age 16, who adopts Jeff and gives him his own last name.
The new family moves to Houston, Texas, where Jeff’s adoptive father works as an engineer for the Exxon corporation. Jeff attends elementary school River Oaks of Houston, already demonstrating a certain propensity for technology building an electric alarm to prevent his younger brothers from entering his room. A few years later the family moved to Miami, Florida, where Jeff studied at Miami Palmetto High School. During this period, he participates in a scientific training course atUniversity of Florida and, in 1982receives the prestigious Silver Knight Award.
During his time in high school, Bezos founded the Dream Institutea center dedicated to stimulating creative thinking among young students. Subsequently, in 1986Yes graduated with honors at the Princeton University in electrical and computer engineeringundertaking various work experiences before joining, in 1990at the New York investment bank D. E. Shaw & Co. There, he quickly became senior vice president, the youngest in the company’s history up to that point. Among his duties was theanalysis of the opportunities offered by the Interneta rapidly growing industry with use in expansion exceeding 2,000% per year. This discovery fueled Jeff Bezos’ entrepreneurial vision. In the 1994Bezos and his wife, Mackenzie Scott Tuttlethey decided to leave DE Shaw and move to Seattle, Washington, with the goal of start an online bookstore.
The birth of Amazon.com
At the age of 30, after leaving his job, starting from the garage of his home at 10704 NE 28th St, Bellevue WA 98004, Bezos and his wife began developing the software and business plan for their new venture. That’s how the July 5, 1994 in Bellevue, Washington, Amazon.com was bornwhose name was borrowed from that of the famous South American river, the Amazon River. To be honest, initially the name chosen was Cadabra.com, later changed to the current one. Amazon sold its first book in July 1995.
Amazon quickly established itself as undisputed leader of the e-commerce sector. Operating 24 hours a day, the online store was intuitive and invited users to write book reviews, while offering discounts, personalized suggestions and the ability to search for out-of-print texts. In June 1998expanded his catalog with CD and subsequently added video. In the 1999Bezos introduced the online auctions and invested in other digital stores.
Amazon’s success prompted numerous retailers, including major bookstore chains, to develop online sales platforms. With growing competition in e-commerce, Bezos understood the need to diversify and so it was 2005 Amazon further expanded its offering with a wide range of products, including electronics, clothing and hardware tools. In the 2006he threw AWS (Amazon Web Services), a cloud computing service that established itself as the largest in the world and in 2007 Amazon introduced the Kindlea digital book reader equipped with wireless connectivity, which allowed users to purchase, download and read e-Books in a simple and intuitive way. The Kindle was a huge success, so much so that in 2010 the company announced that Sales of Kindle e-books had surpassed those of hardcover books. That same year, Amazon entered the entertainment industry with the creation of Amazon Studiosdedicated to the production of television programs and films.
Amazon’s growth was extraordinary: annual net sales went from $510,000 in 1995 to approximately $600 million in 1998for then exceed 19 billion in 2008 hey 230 billion in 2018. In the 2020Amazon reported record profits, with a quarterly turnover which surpassed for the first time i 100 billion dollarsthanks in part to the increase in online shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In February 2021Bezos announced his intention to step down from the role of CEO (Chief Executive Officer) by the end of the year (it was effectively replaced on July 5, 2021 by Andy Jassy), while still remaining in the company as executive president.
BlueOrigin and the purchase of the Washington Post
In addition to creating Amazon, Bezos founded in 2000 the company Blue Origindedicated to space flights. Shortly after its inception, the company purchased a launch site in Texas and planned the debut of the suborbital spacecraft New Shepard In the 2018followed by the New Glenn orbital launcher in 2020. In 2013Bezos acquired the Washington Post and its related publications for 250 million dollars.
Honorary awards and degrees
Below we list some of them main honors attributed to Jeff Bezos during his lifetime.
- Person of the Year according to the magazine TIME (1999)
- Honorary Doctorate of Science and Technology from Carnegie Mellon University (2008)
- Innovation Award, awarded by The Economist due to the success of the Amazon Kindle (2011)
- Entrepreneur of the Year, awarded by the magazine Fortunes (2012)
- Best performing CEO in the world according to Harvard Business Review (2014-2018)
- Second largest leader in the world Fortunes (2015)
- Buzz Aldrin Space Exploration Award in recognition of his work with Blue Origin (2018)
- Knight of the Order of the Legion of Honor of France (2023)
