What happens when your big brother is one of the richest men in the world? Well, that means you have to keep up to keep it all in the family, right? Especially if the family name is Bezos and your name is Mark.
His net worth isn’t as gargantuan as that of older brother Jeff, of course, but it’s safe to say that Mark Bezos has done all right for himself. Mark Bexos is worth an estimated $40 million, which may be peanuts in the Bezos family, but it’s more than enough to keep a roof over his head and support his wife and four kids.
Mark Bezos grew up in New Mexico, and in addition to older brother Jeff he has a sister, Christina. His parents met while they were being served at a bank, and Mark eventually got his degree in advertising and PR from TCU. His salad days included stints at ad firms like Saatchi and Saatchi and DDB in New York, and Mark went off on his own to found the Bezos Nathanson Marketing Group in 1999. He simultaneously started the Bezos Family Foundation in 1999, and Mark served as CEO of the marketing group for seven years, stepping down in 2006.
As has been the case with brother Jeff, the new millennium has been very, very good to Mark. He serves on the board of a non-profit called iMentor, and he’s been on the leadership council of Robin Hood, which is New York’s largest poverty fighting organization.
Whether Mark helps take from the rest of his rich cronies and toss the poor a few bones is another question entirely, which is perhaps partially answered by the fact that Mark also started a private equity firm called HighPost Capital, which focuses on growth equity investments and buyouts.
Believe it or not, though, Mark’s not-so-secret passion is firefighting. He serves on the board of the Leary Firefighters Foundation, and he’s also served as a volunteer with the Scarsdale Fire Department for a decade and a half.
His private life has been relatively quiet, save for his decision to blast into space with brother Jeff as a crew member on Blue Origin’s inaugural flight. He’s married to Lisa Rogers, whom he met in Scarsdale, and presumably they’re happy with their four children, having avoided the sexting scandal that blew up brother Jeff’s marriage a few years back.
Not surprisingly, both Mark and sister Christina own shares in Amazon, so their financial future seems reasonably secure. Mark recently sold his Scarsdale house for north of $10 million, and he’s also a major investor in NBTV a direct-to-consumer video commerce platform.
Whether it will become the next Amazon is up for debate, of course, but it’s clear that ambition is something that runs in the Bezos family. Brother Jeff, of course, is the second richest man on the planet, with a net worth of just over $186 billion. It’s unclear how the tab gets split up for restaurant outings and future luxury vacations into deep space, but if you like your fabulously rich older white guys on the quieter side, Mark Bezos just might be your guy.
