book.chapter Bezos' early life and education

Jeff Bezos, born on January 12, 1964, was adopted by his stepfather, Mike Bezos, a petroleum engineer. Jeff's early life involved frequent relocations due to his stepfather's job. He attended Princeton University in 1982, majoring in electrical engineering and computer science, and graduated summa cum laude in 1986. His senior thesis involved designing a computer that calculated DNA edit distances. After graduation, he worked at Fitel, a financial telecommunications startup, where he launched Equinet, a global network connecting investors, brokers, and banks. In 1988, Bezos joined Bankers Trust Company as the assistant vice president of Global Fiduciary Services, becoming the youngest vice president in the company's history. He managed a communications system linking Bankers Trust to over 100 Fortune 500 corporate pension and profit-sharing plans. In 1990, he joined D.E. Shaw & Co., a quantitative hedge fund, as a vice president and became the firm's youngest senior vice president two years later. In 1993, Bezos married Mackenzie Tuttle, a D.E. Shaw research associate. That same year, he was tasked with investigating profitable Internet business opportunities. He discovered that web usage was growing exponentially and identified books as the most promising online product category. Despite the potential risk of leaving a seven-figure income, Bezos decided to leave D.E. Shaw to start his own Internet bookstore company, driven by the rapid growth of online commerce and the potential regret of missing out on the Internet boom.