Page 15 - Forbes - Africa (March 2020)
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FORBES AFRICA
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ACKENZIEBEZOS oneofanintenselyprivatebuttalented
wasnotfussy,which womanwhohas,quietly,excelledat
washelpful,asthere everystageofherlife.
M wasnotimefor MacKenzie grew up in San
fussinessatAmazonheadquartersin Francisco, a middle child with two
early1996.Shesharedherofficewitha siblings. At six, she wrote a 142-
junioremployeeinaspacethatdoubled page book called The Book Worm. CORONAVIRUS TO LOWER GLOBAL
asthecompanykitchen.For12hours Her parents, a homemaker and AIRLINE REVENUE DOWN BY UP TO
aday,asworkerssqueezedbytouse a financial planner, sent her to $5 BILLION IN Q1
themicrowave,shepresidedoverthe Hotchkiss, the Connecticut boarding The coronavirus outbreak has caused wide-
accounting.Atnightsheheadedtothe school, where she graduated a year ranging flight cancellations and global airline
warehousetopackorders.She“wasa early. She studied at Cambridge, revenues are set to fall by $4 billion to $5
hugecontributor,”saysMikeHanlon, then Princeton, where she majored billion in the first quarter of 2020.
This is according to the forecast from the
Amazon’sseventhemployee.“Shereally in English; Nobel Prize-winning UN’s international Civil Aviation Organization
isatalentedpersoninawaythatIthink novelist Toni Morrison was her (ICAO).
getslostwhenyou’rethebillionaire’s thesis advisor. “She was generally a According to Forbes, the Montreal-based
wife.” very poised and a quiet and brilliant agency, in a statement, warned that the
ThemysteryaroundMacKenzie,49, presence,” says Jeff Nunokawa, one coronavirus, would have a greater impact on
seemscarefullycultivated.Shelargely of her English professors. the aviation industry than the 2003 SARS
slippedintoanonymityafterAmazon’s After graduating, she took a epidemic.
earlyyearsandhasgrantednointerviews job at the hedge fund D.E. Shaw, According to the report by ICAO, 50 airlines
sinceJanuary2019,whenhersplitfrom where she began dating Jeff Bezos, have significantly cut back operations, 70
husbandJeffbecamepublic. who left to found Amazon in 1994. others have fully cancelled all international
Thecouplefinalizedtheirdivorcein From the outset, MacKenzie was flights to and from mainland China.
This has resulted in an 80% reduction of
July,withMacKenziegetting25%ofhis heavily involved. “No one really foreign airline capacity for travelers to and
Amazonstock.Thatstakeiscurrently had job titles . . . so she did just from China as well as a 40% capacity reduction
worth$36.1billion,enoughtoputher about everything,” says Tod Nelson,
15thon2019’sForbes400.“Sheshould another early employee.
havegotten50%ofthecompany,”says MacKenzie pulled back around
NickHanauer,oneofAmazon’sfirst the time Amazon went public, in SOUTH AFRICA’S DARK
investors.“MacKenziewasanequal 1997, to focus on fiction writing. She TIMES CONTINUE
partnertoJeffintheearlydays.” kept a low profile until 2005, when Mid last month, South
Inkeepingwithcharacter, HarperCollins published her first Africa’s electricity utility
MacKenziewouldn’ttalkforthisstory. novel, The Testing of Luther Albright. Eskom announced more
Toshedsomelightonher,wespent Morrison deemed it “a rarity.” plans for load-shedding.
weekscontactingmorethan100friends MacKenzie followed it in 2013 with During the contentious
andformerclassmatesandcoworkers; Traps. The more recent chapters State of the Nation Address
even that yielded only a hazy picture, of her life are largely unknown. In last month, President Cyril
2018 she and Jeff Ramaphosa said load-shedding
committed $2 billion will likely continue in the near
future as Eskom completes
to fight homelessness “fundamental maintenance”.
and support nonprofit He admitted power cuts over
preschools. In May, the past few months hampered
as their divorce the state’s efforts to rebuild the
Photo by Elena Seibert she signed the Giving consequence of Eskom’s inability over many
neared completion,
economy and create jobs.
“At its core, load-shedding is the inevitable
Pledge, promising to
years – due to debt, lack of capacity and
donate at least half her
state capture – to service its power plants,”
wealth. True to form,
South Africa will work with independent
about where those
A Celebrated Couple she hasn’t said a word Ramaphosa said.
Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos attend a 2009 awards billions will go. power producers to accelerate the
dinner at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. completion of the previous window projects.
MARCH 2020 FORBES AFRICA | 13
