Joy Covey
Joy Covey (April 25, 1963 – September 18, 2013) was an American business executive, best known as Amazon's first chief financial officer. Covey was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in San Mateo, California, later moving to Fresno, California, at the age of 17. Though she dropped out of high school at age 15, she later resumed her education, graduating from California State University, Fresno with a BS in Business/Accounting and later attending Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School[citation needed] which helped position her to become the chief financial officer at Digidesign. In 1996, Covey joined Amazon, shortly becoming the CFO and then Chief Strategy Officer and raising over $500 million for the company. In 1999 she was #28 on Fortune magazine's list of "Most Powerful Women in Business" She left Amazon voluntarily in 2000, it was said that she "was tired of frenetic internet life". Fortune Magazine said of her: Other women on our list, like Amazon.com's Joy Covey, learned from mothers who gained strength through suffering. During World War II, Joan Covey, who is Dutch by heritage, lived in Indonesia (then the Dutch East Indies). When the Japanese invaded, she was sent to a prison camp for two years. She watched her own mother starve to death there. The hardship fostered an intense self-reliance, which daughter Joy has as well. Covey died when she was struck by a delivery van while cycling on a road in California.