Who is MacKenzie Scott and How did she become the richest woman in the world?

Team Udayavani, Sep 4, 2020, 2:14 PM IST

MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos  is now the wealthiest woman in the world.

Scott’s net worth is now US$68 billion, propelling her past Loreal heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers. MacKenzie is a philanthropist, author and was formerly married to Amazon boss Jeff Bezos. She is now the 12th wealthiest person in the world.

Scott received a quarter of Bezos’ Amazon shares in the couple’s divorce settlement in 2019. That equated to a 4% stake that was worth more than $35 billion at the time.

Mackenzie was born in San Francisco, California. She graduated from the prestigious US ivy league Princeton University, with a bachelor’s degree in English, in 1992.

According to Indian Express, Soon after graduating from college, Scott joined DE Shaw, a hedge fund in New York, where she worked for Jeff Bezos as a research associate. The couple soon started dating, and got married the next year, in 1993.

In 1994, Bezos left DE Shaw and founded Amazon, which was then merely an online bookstore started from his garage. Scott joined him as the company’s first employee. Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos married in 1993 and have four children

The couple announced their divorce in January 2019 after being married for 25 years. Scott received a quarter of Bezos’ Amazon shares in the couple’s divorce settlement in 2019. That equated to a 4 per cent stake that was worth more than $35 billion at the time.

According to a report by Ctv news, Amazon’s stock jumped roughly 28 per cent over the last three months, and is up more than 90 per cent so far this year. The soar in shares increased the wealth of Bezos to over $200 billion. This simultaneously made Scott the world’s richest woman as her own net worth climbed to $66.4 billion.