Joy Covey

Joy Covey (died 18 September 2013) was an American business executive, best known as Amazon's first chief financial officer. Covey was born in San Mateo, California, and later moved to Fresno, California, at the age of 17. Though she dropped out of high school at age 15, she later resumed her education, attending Harvard Law School 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 dollars 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". Covey died when she collided with a van, while cycling on a road in California.

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.