Mackenzie Scott Bezos is not the first woman to be added to our Featured Alpha list but, she is certainly the wealthiest. A quick online search and you’ll likely notice 2 things: hardly an article exists without mention of Jeff Bezos and, it is nearly impossible to find a picture of her without him. A woman who despite having been around Amazon and Bezos since its inception, has remained relatively private. Let’s take a look at why she has made the list.
- She is educated in her own right. Mackenzie graduated from Princeton with an undergrad in English and studied under the famous Nobel Laureate, Toni Morrison.
- Mackenzie has stated that she wrote her first book at age 6 which was 142 pages long.
- She is the antithesis to the “gold digger” narrative. She met and married Jeff Bezos well before his Amazon wealth and fame. Her and Bezos were married in 1993 and they did not even move to Seattle to begin work on Amazon until 1994.
- Her and Jeff Bezos have 4 children and have raised them entirely in private.
- When Amazon first started, Mackenzie worked as an accountant and even packed and shipped some of the first orders.
- When Mackenzie and Bezos divorced in 2019, Mackenzie walked away with $38 billion in Amazon stock but still gave her voting rights to Bezos.
- Shortly after the divorce, Mackenzie signed “The Giving Pledge” which is essentially a pledge by the world’s wealthy to donate half of their net worth over their lifetime.
- In 2020, Mackenzie donated a total of $5.8 billion to nonprofits and charities. One of the largest annual charitable sums in history.
- The donations were made very quietly and without announcement for several months until the records were released at the end of 2020.
- All in all, Mackenzie donated to roughly 400 organizations in 2020. Most of them smaller organizations and institutions that often go unnoticed or neglected.
- Mackenzie has stated that she is hardly finished with her charitable work and donations and has pledged to continue to give. Her net worth is still listed to be $55 billion.
- In 2021, Mackenzie married Seattle science teacher Dan Jewett.
