Editors: A news conference with Jeff Bezos will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Nov. 7 following his address. To set up a private interview with Bezos from noon to 2 p.m. on Nov. 7 contact Susan Kelley at (303) 492-2823.
Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive officer of Amazon.com, will give a free public address at the University of Colorado at Boulder at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 7.
The talk in Macky Auditorium is free and open to the public. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.
Bezos' address is part of his daylong visit to the Robert H. and Beverly A. Deming Center for Entrepreneurship at CU-Boulder's College of Business. The Deming Center is awarding Bezos its annual Entrepreneur of the Year award. CU President Elizabeth Hoffman will present Bezos with the award at his Nov. 7 address.
Bezos has become an icon of the e-commerce revolution since founding Amazon.com, an online book retailer, in 1994. Under Bezos' direction, Amazon.com has developed a leading global e-commerce brand and platform, expanded its product line and become the Internet's No. 1 retailer of music, DVD videos and books. Amazon.com's sales increased from $610 million in 1998 to $1.64 billion in 1999 -- a 169 percent increase.
The company is now exploring ways it can leverage contacts with its 23 million customers. In recognition of his accomplishments, Time magazine named Bezos its Person of the Year for 1999.
While in Boulder, Bezos also will meet privately with entrepreneurship students from the CU-Boulder colleges of business and engineering and members of the board of the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship.
Ernst & Young is sponsoring the 2000 CU-Boulder Entrepreneur of the Year event with the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship in conjunction with the grand opening of the company聮s new Boulder County office in Interlocken.
The Deming Center for Entrepreneurship is a joint program of the colleges of business and engineering at CU-Boulder. The center supports entrepreneurship studies at the graduate and undergraduate levels as part of a living laboratory in Colorado's Front Range business environment.
For parking or other information call Cindy Scheopner at (303) 735-4970, send an e-mail to deming@colorado.edu or view the Web site at .