Joy Covey then the chief financial officer of Amazon.com on the floor of the Chicago Board Options Exchange in 1997 the year Amazon went public. She was with exchange Vice Chairman Thomas Ascher (left) and CEO William Brodsky.
John Zich/Chicago Board Options Exchange/APJoy Covey then the chief financial officer of Amazon.com on the floor of the Chicago Board Options Exchange in 1997 the year Amazon went public. She was with exchange Vice Chairman Thomas Ascher (left) and CEO William Brodsky.
John Zich/Chicago Board Options Exchange/APJoy Covey who helped take Amazon.com Inc. public as the Internet retailer's chief financial officer died Wednesday when her bicycle collided with a van on a downhill stretch of road in San Mateo County the Los Angeles Times writes.
She was 50.
San Francisco's KGO TV reports that
According to the California Highway Patrol Covey was riding downhill on Skyline Boulevard when she crashed into a Mazda minivan Wednesday afternoon. The minivan driven by a 22 year old Fremont man was heading uphill and made a left turn onto Elk Tree Road directly in front of Covey. Covey crashed into the right side of the van and was pronounced dead at the scene. CHP officials say the driver is cooperating with their investigation.
CNN Money has reposted what it wrote about Covey in 1999 when she was No. 28 on Fortune's Most Powerful Women in Business list.
After dropping out of high school because she was bored Fortune wrote Covey used her 173 IQ to pass California's high school equivalency exam. At 19 she graduated from California State University at Fresno and took the CPA exam (scoring second best in the country that year). After working at the accounting firm Arthur Young for a while she headed to Harvard to collect an MBA and a law degree.
In 1996 Fortune continued following an interlude in Silicon Valley Covey arrived in Seattle pumped at the prospect of being a pioneer. Amazon.com was then an unproven e commerce curiosity. 'I thought Wouldn't it be great to build one of those new business models like Microsoft or Intel or Dell ' ... Covey has been an unusually influential finance chief working with Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos to recruit senior management and steer the company into businesses far beyond books. Says Bezos 'I can budget only four days a year to talk to investors so Joy has been Amazon.com's primary contact with Wall Street. In the Internet space that's really unusual. She's doing what a CEO would normally do.'
According to the San Jose Mercury News Covey led Amazon's 1997 IPO counseling impatient Wall Street analysts to expect more red ink before profitability. By the time she quit to go skiing in 2000 Covey's net worth was estimated at $200 million. Amazon now has 97 000 employees and a market capitalization of $142.6 billion all of it based on a structure she put in place.
The Times adds that Amazon went public on May 14 1997 with an initial public offering price of $18. Shares closed Wednesday at a record $312.06.
In recent years CNET writes Covey was working as the treasurer for the environmental group National Resources Defense Council. ... Covey also established the Beagle Foundation which gives funding to environmental causes.
The Times says her son Tyler is among her survivors.
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