Who is Mark Bezos? Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos picked his younger brother and BFF to come with him on Blue Origin’s first human space flight, and once called him the ‘funniest guy in my life’

Jun 13 , 2021

What do we know about Mark Bezos, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ younger brother? Photo: @tdevelopments/Twitter

On July 20, Jeff and Mark Bezos – not sister Christina or parents Mike and Jackie – will board the New Shephard spacecraft and head 100km above the Earth

Also a millionaire, Mark has worked at ad firm DDB in New York City, now leads non-profit Robin Hood – and just put a US$11 million property up for sale

On July 20, Jeff Bezos and his younger brother, Mark, are heading to space.

The Amazon founder announced Monday, June 7, that he and his brother will be on the first human flight of the New Shepard spacecraft, which is made by Blue Origin, Bezos’ space exploration company. The company is currently auctioning one of the six available seats aboard the flight, which will last 11 minutes and take the spacecraft 100km (62 miles) above the Earth’s surface.

Jeff Bezos said in a video posted to Instagram that he’s wanted to go to space his whole life, and that he asked his brother to come along “because we’re closest friends”.

So who is the younger Bezos? Here are five things we know about him.

Mark Bezos is the youngest of the Bezos siblings

The Bezos family. Photo: Fred Hutch News Service

According to a 1999 Wired profile on Jeff Bezos, Mark Bezos is six years younger than his brother, who turned 57 in January. The brothers have a middle sister named Christina.

The Bezos siblings moved around a lot as kids, spending time in Albuquerque, Houston and Pensacola, Florida. Their mother, Jackie, had Jeff as a teenager; their father, Mike, immigrated to the US from Cuba at age 15. The couple met while working at a local bank, and Mike Bezos became Jeff Bezos’ adoptive father.

He got his start in advertising and marketing