Boston believes Jeff Bezos’ increasing commitment to fitness could be a clue to Amazon’s priority list in its search for a second headquarters, according to a report from The Boston Herald.
The Herald obtained emails revealing that Boston officials put together personal dossiers on Amazon’s top executives and other influential figures, like Bezos’ wife, when preparing a bid for HQ2.
One email from Cathy Judd-Stein, a lawyer in the governor’s office, said that Amazon’s head of sports and fitness ended a presentation “with a slide showing how bulked up Jeff Bezos was.” She added, “If your office is at all involved in trying to encourage Amazon to come to MA, I’d at least somewhere make it clear how focused the area is on recreation/fitness, with proximity to mountains and sea etc.”
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The dossier also includes other insights, like Bezos’ disdain for PowerPoint. Emails reveal a series of phone calls between Boston officials and Amazon executives, including public policy lead Jay Carney, who previously served in the Obama White House. All hands were on deck to increase Boston’s chances, with employees across the governor’s office and other agencies working on the city’s proposal. That’s not unusual, as 238 cities across the continent spent the weeks before Amazon’s deadline pulling out all of the stops to create a proposal that would stand out from the pack.
Whoever does manage to woo Amazon will land a $5 billion campus promising 50,000 high-paying jobs. Amazon HQ2 is expected to be the “full equal” to the company’s original Seattle headquarters.
