Jeff Bezos

Jeffrey Preston Bezos was born January 12, 1964 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He graduated from Princeton University with degrees in computer science and electrical enginerring. He went on to work as a financial analyst before founding online retailer Amazon in 1994, just as the internet began to evolve rapidly.His early life was enormously varied as he helped his grandfather perform a number of different tasks on their family ranch. He displayed a striking mechanical aptitude and as a toddler, he asserted this ability by dismantling his entire crib…with a screwdriver!!! He also rigged an electric alarm in his room to keep his younger siblings out and converted his parents’ garage into a mini laboratory for his school science projects.

When the family moved to Miami Florida, Jeffrey attended Miami Palmetto Senior High School and soon fell in love with computers. His passion for IT allowed him to graduate with a degree in computer science (see above).

Through innovation and sheer business savvy, Bezos built up Amazon and became one of the world’s richest people in the process. His buorant personality and financial know-how impressed many and he became a well known celebrity entrepreneur. He was named Time magazine’s Man of the Year in 1999.

With the burst of the dot com bubble, Amazon suffered from its ups and downs. It is back on top and has rapidly expanded its lines from selling books and CDs to a wide variety of consumer goods such as electrical items. Amazon headquarters are located in Seattle, Washington.

In 2000 Bezos ventured into another market and helped found Blue Origin, a side project whose goal is to build reusable rocket ships to encourage tourism in outer space.

Estimated wealth According to Forbes list of the World’s Wealthiest People:

1999 - $10.1 billion, ranked no. 19
2000 - $6.0 billion, ranked no. 55
2001 - $2.0 billion, ranked no. 234
2002 - $1.5 billion, ranked no. 293
2003 - $2.5 billion, ranked no. 147
2004 - $5.1 billion, ranked no. 82
2005 - $4.8 billion, ranked no. 41