Jeff Bezos is an American succesful entrepreneur, his successful business ventures have made him one of the richest people in the world. Bezos is widely known as the founder, Executive Chairman, President of Amazon and the richest man in the world.
Think you know everything about Jeff Bezos? Time to find out. Here are top 7 facts about Jeff Bezos. There is a lot that you can learn about and from him.
Background
Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on January 12, 1964. At the time of his birth, his mother was a 17-year-old high school student and his father was 19. After completing high school despite challenging conditions, Jacklyn attended night school while bringing baby Jeff along. After his parents divorced, his mother married Cuban immigrant Miguel “Mike” Bezos in April 1968.
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Amazon
Jeff Bezos founded e-commerce giant Amazon in 1994 out of his garage in Seattle. Amazon thrived during the pandemic; revenues in 2020 grew 38% to $386 billion. Amazon is known for its disruption of well-established industries through technological innovation and mass scale. It is the world’s largest online marketplace, AI assistant provider, live-streaming platform and cloud computing platform as measured by revenue and market capitalization.
Wealth
Bezos surpassed Bill Gates to hold the title as the richest American and despite losing almost $38 billion in his divorce settlement with MacKenzie Scott in 2019, Bezos retained the top spot. Bezos is estimated to be worth $196.2 billion, according to Forbes’ real-time net worth calculator.
On Forbes List, he ranked #1 as Billionaires 2021, number 1 on Forbes 400 2020, #1 Innovative Leaders 2019 and The Richest Person In Every State 2019, number 5 for Powerful People 2018, number 2 as the Richest In Tech 2017 and Global Game Changers 2016
Blue Origin
Blue Origin’s New Shepard vehicle reached space in 2015, and afterwards successfully landed back on Earth. In 2000, Bezos founded Blue Origin, an aerospace company that develops technologies to lower the cost of space travel to make it accessible to paying customers. For a decade and a half, the company operated quietly. He stepped dwon as the CEO (Chief Exectuive Office) of Amazon to focus on this project.
The Washington Post
On August 5, 2013, Bezos purchased the newspaper company in 2013 for $250 million. At the time, Bezos’ net worth was estimated to be over $25 billion. Immediately following the purchase, The Post Company shares rose 5.5% in after-hours trading. Under Bezos’ ownership, the once-struggling newspaper turned a profit in 2016, 2017, and 2018, according to CNN.
CEO Status
BizWatch Nigeria recalls that in February 2021, Amazon announced that Bezos will step down as CEO in the third quarter of the year. Bezos has now stepped down from the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company, after handing the baton over to Andrew Jassy.
Entertainment Industry
Bezos played an alien in Star Trek Beyond’s 2016 movie reboot, and reportedly made quite an impression on set, with movie star Chris Pine. Bezos made it known that he is a fan of Star Trek and wanted to feature in it.
