Who is The World's Richest Man?

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Who Is Jeff Bezos?

Jeff Bezos , byname of Jeffrey Preston Bezos, (born January 12, 1964, Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.), American entrepreneur who played a key role in the growth of e-commerce as the founder and chief executive officer of Amazon.com, Inc. as well as the owner of The Washington Post and founder of the space exploration company Blue Origin. His successful business ventures have made him one of the richest people in the world.

As a child, Bezos had an early love of computers and studied computer science and electrical engineering at Princeton University. After graduation, he worked on Wall Street, and in 1990 he became the youngest senior vice president at the investment firm D.E. Shaw.

Four years later, Bezos quit his lucrative job to open Amazon.com, an online bookstore that became one of the Internet's biggest success stories. In 2013, Bezos purchased The Washington Post, and in 2017 Amazon acquired Whole Foods.

Jeff Bezos' Family

Jeff Bezos was born on January 12, 1964, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to a teenage mother, Jacklyn Gise Jorgensen, and his biological father, Ted Jorgensen. However, the marriage of father and mother only survive more than a year.

After his mother divorced his father, she married Cuban immigrant Miguel “Mike” Bezos in April 1968. At age four, Miguel Bezos adopted him and his surname was then changed to Bezos. The family then moved to Houston, Texas. In high school, the family moved to Miami, Florida.

25 years of marriage and his children

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Bezos met MacKenzie Tuttle when they both worked at D.E. Shaw. A year later the couple was married and then moved to Seattle, Washington in 1994. MacKenzie was an integral part of the founding and success of Amazon, helping create Amazon's first business plan and serving as the company's first accountant. Although quiet and bookish, she publicly supported Amazon and her husband.

On January 9, 2019, Bezos and his wife announced their divorce on Twitter after more than 25 years of marriage. As part of the porce settlement, Jeff Bazos transferred a quarter of his Amazon stake to her.

Jeff and MacKenzie have four children together: three sons and a daughter adopted from China.

Founder and CEO of Amazon, one of the largest technology companies in the world

Photo: CTV News

The initial success of the company was meteoric. With no press promotion, Amazon.com sold books across the United States and in 45 foreign countries within 30 days. In two months, sales reached $20,000 a week, growing faster than Bezos and his startup team had envisioned.In 1986, he was offered a job at Intel, Bell Labs, and Andersen Consulting, etc. In late 1993, Jeff left his job at D.E. Shaw and decided to establish an online bookstore. Bezos founded Amazon.com in his garage on July 5, 1994, after writing its business plan on a trip from New York to Seattle. After inviting 300 friends to beta test the site, Bezos opened Amazon.com, named after the meandering South American river, on July 16, 1995.

Amazon.com went public in 1997, leading many market analysts to question whether the company could hold its own when traditional retailers launched their own e-commerce sites. Two years later, the start-up not only kept up, but also outpaced competitors, becoming an e-commerce leader.

Other activities

On August 5, 2013, Bezos made headlines worldwide when he purchased The Washington Post and other publications affiliated with its parent company, The Washington Post Co., for $250 million. Initially, Bezos was accused of controlling the content of the newspaper unfairly which was later dismissed by Bezos and the editorial board of The Washington Post. In 2016, for the first time since Bezos purchased the newspaper, the paper was profitable after a surge in online readership.

In September 2000, Jeff Bezos founded Blue Origin which is a human spaceflight startup company. Until 2006, the company purchased a large tract of land in West Texas for a launch and test facility. In August 2019, NASA announced that Blue Origin was among 13 companies selected to collaborate on 19 technology projects to reach the moon and Mars. Blue Origin is developing a safe and precise landing system for the moon as well as engine nozzles for rockets with liquid propellant. The company is also working with NASA to build and launch reusable rockets from a refurbished complex just outside of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

Jeff Bezos' Wealth

In October 2016, his wealth increased by $16.2 billion to $66.5 billion unofficially ranking him the third richest person in the world behind Warren Buffett.

On March 6, 2018, Bezos was officially 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), ranked third.

On July 17, 2018 he was designated the “wealthiest person in modern history” by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index,Fortune, MarketWatch, The Wall Street Journal, and Forbes.

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