Bezos Paid Ex-Amazon Executive $828,000 to Run Pre-K Nonprofit

A former Amazon.com Inc. vice president was paid more than $800,000 in 2021 to run Jeff Bezos’s preschool network, which, for most of that year, consisted of just one location with 13 students.

Michael George, who spent more than two decades at Amazon, received the pay package while overseeing the Bezos Academy in Des Moines, Washington, a “Montessori-inspired” preschool aimed at low-income children.

While the network of tuition-free schools expanded in Washington late in 2021 — with additional locations planned in Texas and Florida — George’s base salary in the academy’s first full year of operation was $800,452, plus ...