MacKenzie Scott

MacKenzie Scott
MacKenzie Scott
	Scott in 2016
Born	MacKenzie Scott Tuttle; April 7, 1970 (age 55); San Francisco, California, U.S.
Other names	MacKenzie Bezos
Education	Princeton University (BA)
Occupations	Novelist; philanthropist;
Notable work	The Testing of Luther Albright
Spouses	Jeff Bezos (m. 1993; div. 2019); Dan Jewett (m. 2021; div. 2023);
Children	4
Awards	American Book Award (2006)

MacKenzie Scott (née Tuttle, formerly Bezos; born April 7, 1970) is an American novelist, philanthropist, and ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. As of June 2024^[update], she has a net worth of US$36.1 billion, owning a 4% stake in Amazon. As such, Scott came out of her divorce as the third-wealthiest woman in the United States and the 47th-wealthiest individual in the world. Scott was named the world's most powerful woman by Forbes in 2021 and one of Time's 100 most influential people in 2020.

In 2006, Scott won an American Book Award for her 2005 debut novel, The Testing of Luther Albright. Her second novel, Traps, was published in 2013. She has been executive director of Bystander Revolution, an anti-bullying organization, since she founded it in 2014. She is committed to giving at least half of her wealth to charity as a signatory to the Giving Pledge. Scott made US$5.8 billion in charitable gifts in 2020, one of the largest annual distributions by a private individual to working charities.

Early life and education

MacKenzie Scott Tuttle was born on April 7, 1970, in San Francisco, California, to Holiday Robin (née Cuming), a homemaker, and Jason Baker Tuttle, a financial planner. She was named after her maternal grandfather, G. Scott Cuming, who worked as an executive and general counsel at El Paso Natural Gas. She claims to remember writing seriously at the age of six, when she wrote The Book Worm, a 142-page book that was destroyed in a flood.

In 1988, she graduated from the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut.

Career

After graduating from college, Tuttle worked as a research assistant to Morrison for the 1992 novel Jazz. She also worked in an administrative role for hedge fund D. E. Shaw in New York City, where she met Jeff Bezos.

Amazon

In 1993, Scott and Bezos married. The following year, they left D. E. Shaw, moved to Seattle, and Bezos founded Amazon with Scott's support. Scott was one of Amazon's early key contributors, and was heavily involved in Amazon's early days, working on the company's name, business plan, accounts, and shipping early orders. After 1996, Scott took a less involved role in the business, focusing on her family and literary career.

Literary career

In 2005, Scott wrote her debut novel, The Testing of Luther Albright, for which she won an American Book Award in 2006. She said that the book took her ten years to write as she was helping Bezos build Amazon and raising her family. Toni Morrison, her former professor, reviewed the book as "a rarity: a sophisticated novel that breaks and swells the heart". Her second novel, Traps, was published in 2013. According to NPD BookScan, sales of her books were modest.

Personal life

Scott was married to Jeff Bezos, They have four children: three sons, and an adopted daughter from China.

Their community property divorce in 2019 left Scott with US$35.6 billion in Amazon stock, but her former husband retained 75% of the couple's Amazon stock. She became the third-wealthiest woman in the world and one of the wealthiest people overall in April 2019. In July 2020, Scott was ranked the 22nd-richest person in the world by Forbes with a net worth estimated at $36 billion. By September 2020, Scott was named the world's richest woman, and by December 2020, her net worth was estimated at $62 billion.

After her divorce from Jeff Bezos, MacKenzie Bezos changed her name to MacKenzie Scott, with the surname deriving from her middle name given at birth.

In 2021, Scott then married Lakeside School science teacher Dan Jewett. The marriage was revealed in Jewett's Giving Pledge letter posted in March 2021. In September 2022, Scott filed for divorce, which was finalized in January 2023.

Philanthropy

In May 2019, Scott signed the Giving Pledge, a charitable-giving campaign in which she undertook to give away most of her wealth to charity over her lifetime or in her will. Despite its name, the pledge is not legally binding.

In a July 2020 Medium post,

Scott announced another $2.7 billion in giving to 286 organizations in June 2021. Forbes reported that Scott donated $8.5 billion across 780 organizations in one year (July 2020 to July 2021). In June 2021, Scott and Melinda French Gates launched the Equality Can't Wait Challenge, a contest to promote gender equality In February 2022, nine organizations announced gifts from Scott totaling $264.5 million. The Association for Women's Rights in Development received a $15 million donation.

In March 2023, Scott announced an "open call" for community-focused nonprofits with annual budgets between $1 and $5 million with 279 non-profits received $2 million each while 82 groups were given $1 million each. Scott donated nearly $2.2 billion in 2023 to 360 organizations supporting early learning, access to affordable housing, race and gender equity, health equity, and civic and social engagement. She donated $5 million to the Hawaii Community Foundation. The foundation intended to use 75% of the donation to fund the Maui Strong Fund, a fund created to support the long-term recovery from Maui wildfires. As of December 2023, Scott had donated more than $16 billion to non-profit organizations. In March 2024, Scott's donations has reached $17.2 billion.

Forbes reported, "the unrestricted and ultimately more trusting nature of Scott's philanthropy is the exception, not the norm in their world." According to Senior Vice President of the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Renee Karibi-Whyte, competitions like Scott's open call can help organizations who do not have connections with a specific funder get considered. In December 2021, Scott faced backlash for a Medium post when she stated she would not reveal how much money she has donated or to whom. In December 2022, she posted the link to her donation database, called Yield Giving. Per the website, "Yield is named after a belief in adding value by giving up control."

Bibliography

The Testing of Luther Albright. Fourth Estate. 2005. ISBN 978-0-00-719287-8.
Traps. Knopf. 2013. ISBN 978-0-307-95973-7.