Tony Hsieh, a Las Vegas visionary and former CEO of Zappos who propelled the online shoe retailer into the big leagues with its billion dollar sale to Amazon, has died aged 46. He died after being injured by a fire at his home. home in New London, Connecticut, said attorney Puoy Premsrirut the wall street journal.
Hsieh’s cause of death is still under investigation. Thomas Curcio, chief of the New London fire department, said in an interview with the outlet that firefighters were called to the scene at 3.34am on November 18 after receiving a report that someone had been trapped. The victim, who had suffered visible burns and suffered from smoke inhalation, was transported by ambulance to a local hospital before being airlifted to the Connecticut Burn Center about an hour away, authorities said. Hsieh’s brother was at home when the fire broke out, a spokesperson for Hsieh said. TechCrunch
But it is not known if anyone else was injured in the incident.
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Launch of Zappos A declaration on his death shortly after midnight on Saturday.
“The world has lost a formidable visionary and an incredible human being,” wrote Kedar Deshpande, who took over the business after Hsieh retired earlier this year. “Tony was instrumental in building the thriving Zappos business that we have today, with his passion to help support and advance the culture of our company.
DTP Companies, Hsieh’s joint venture to revitalize older areas of Las Vegas, said he passed away peacefully on Friday surrounded by his family in a hurry declaration He called the incident a “heartbreaking tragedy”.
Hsieh was an unorthodox but much admired businessman; when he was away from home in Connecticut, the billionaire lived in a Airstream trailer in downtown Las Vegas, who began his career as one of the Internet’s greatest pioneers of the 1990s. After graduating from Harvard and selling his first bus iness, online advertising company LinkExchange, at Microsoft when he was just 24, he used the profits to become venture capital for tech startups. The most successful of these would be Zappos, an online shoe and clothing retailer that debuted in 1999 as ShoeSite.com (the name was changed to Zappos, an original version of the Spanish word for ” shoes’ shortly after its launch). Hsieh joined as co-CEO in 2001, moved their headquarters from the Bay Area to Las Vegas in 2004, and led the company through skyrocketing earnings and growth including a $ 1.2 billion sale. dollars to e-commerce giant Amazon in 2009..
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After running the business For more than 20 years, Hsieh resigned in August, possibly to focus on his other passion: urban regeneration. In addition to investing millions of dollars in DTP, it has also invested heavily in startups on the condition that they move to downtown Las Vegas, a historic Sin City district that has been neglected over the years, so same as the developers continue. invest billions in newer portions Strip and surrounding area. Several Nevada officials posted statements on Twitter on Saturday about the news of his death.
“Tony Hsieh played a pivotal role in transforming downtown Las Vegas”, Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak wrote.
“I am very saddened to learn of the death of Tony Hsieh” said Las Vegas advisor Cedric Create. “Such a creative and innovative person who has positively contributed to changing the landscape of downtown Las Vegas.”
Zappos CEO Deshpande invited people to send their fond memories of Hsieh to [email protected], which will be shared with his family.
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