Jeff Bezos, the founder and former CEO of Amazon got engaged to her girlfriend Lauren.  Lauren Sánchez is a well-known American media figure who rose to stardom as an entertainment reporter and news anchor.  The Emmy Award winner envisions travelling to space in early 2024 with an all-female crew aboard a New Shepard.

Who is Jeff Bezos?

Jeff Bezos steps down as Amazon CEO: All you need to know

Jeffrey Preston Bezos: Birth, Family, Education 

Jeffrey Preston Bezos was born as Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen on January 12, 1964, in Albuquerque, New Mexico to Jacklyn (née Gise) and Ted Jorgensen. At the time of his birth, his mother was only 17 years old and was a high school student while his father was a bike shop owner. In 1968, the couple got separated and his mother married Cuban immigrant Miguel "Mike" Bezos. Mike adopted four-year-old Jorgensen and the surname was then changed to Bezos. 

The family moved to Texas where Bezos attended River Oaks Elementary School in Houston from fourth to sixth grade. Later on, the family moved to Miami, Florida where Bezos attended Miami Palmetto High School. During the breakfast shift, Bezos worked at McDonald's short-order line cook. In the year 1986, he graduated from summa cum laude from Princeton University and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) in electrical engineering and computer science. 

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Jeffrey Preston Bezos: Career

Amazon

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. On July 5, 1994, he launched Cadabra from his garage which was later changed to Amazon. His parents invested $300,000 in Amazon. By the end of the year 1998, Bezos expanded Amazon to other products, initially launched as an online bookstore. In 2000, Bezos borrowed $2 billion from banks. In 2002, Amazon faced financial distress and in the year 2003, he rebounded from financial instability and gained a profit of $400 million. 

In 2007, Amazon launched Amazon Kindle. In 2013, he secured a $600 million contract with CIA on behalf of Amazon Web Services. In May 2016, Bezos sold more than a million shares of his holdings for $671 million, the largest sum Bezos ever raised from selling his Amazon stock. The same year in August, he sold another million of his shares for $756.7 million. In July 2017, Jeff momentarily became the world's wealthiest person. The same year in November, his wealth surpassed $100 billion. On January 29, 2018, he was featured in Amazon's Super Bowl commercial. On February 1, 2018, the company reported its highest-ever profit with quarterly earnings of $2 billion. On March 6, 2018, Jeff was designated as the world's wealthiest person by Forbes with a net worth of $112 billion. 

On July 5, 2021, he stepped down as its CEO to utilize his energy on other passions. 

Blue Origin 

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 2011, the company's unmanned prototype vehicle crashed during a short-hop test flight. In May 2013, Jeff Bezos met the chairman of Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson, to discuss commercial spaceflight opportunities and strategies. 

In November 2015, the company launched the New Shepard space vehicle which reached its planned test altitude and returned back to the launch site in West Texas. 

The main aim of Blue Origin is to preserve the natural resources of the Earth by making the human species multi-planetary. In July 2018, the company announced that Bezos had priced commercial spaceflight tickets from $200,000 to $300,000 per person. 

Explained: What is the New Shepard rocket system by Blue Origin?

The Washington Post

On August 5, 2013, Jeff Bezos purchased The Washington Post for $250 million in cash. In 2016, he reinvented the newspaper as a media and technology company by reconstructing its digital media, mobile platforms, and analytics software. 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. 

Day One Fund

Bezos's Day One Fund issues annual leadership awards to organizations and civic groups that are compassionate, doing needle-moving work to provide shelter and hunger support to address the immediate needs of young families. The vision statement of Day One Fund is 'No Child Sleeps Outside'. 

Bezos Expeditions

Jeff Bezos makes personal investments through Bezos Expeditions. He is among the first shareholders in Google. Bezos invested $250,000 in 1998 which resulted in 3.3 million shares of Google stock, worth about $3.1 billion in 2017.

He also invested in the healthcare sector, which includes investments in Unity Biotechnology, GRAIL, Juno Therapeutics, and Zocdoc.

Jeff Bezos is also involved in philanthropic work through direct donations and non-profit projects funded by Bezos Expeditions.

Jeffrey Preston Bezos: Personal Life

Jeff Bezos met novelist MacKenzie Tuttle in 1992 while working for D. E. Shaw in Manhattan. The duo married a year later. In 1994, the couple moved to Seattle, Washington, where Bezos founded Amazon. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Tuttle (now ex-wife) are the parents of four children, three sons and one daughter adopted from China. 

On 9 January 2019, the couple announced their intent to divorce after a long period of separation. Their divorce was finalized on 4 April 2019. Post-divorce, Jeff Bezos holds 75% of Amazon's stock and the couple's voting rights.

Bezos won his first significant prize in 1999 when Time named him Person of the Year. He was chosen by U.S. News & World Report in 2008 as one of the country's top leaders. In 2008, Carnegie Mellon University conferred him an honorary doctorate in science and technology. In addition, he has also received the James Smithson Medal and the Axel Springer Award.

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