Tony Hsieh

In 1999, at the age of 24, Tony Hsieh (pronounced Shay) sold LinkExchange, the company he co-founded, to Microsoft for $265 million. He then joined Zappos.com as an advisor and investor, eventually becoming CEO. Tony helped Zappos grow from almost no sales to over $1 billion in annual gross merchandise sales, while simultaneously making Fortune Magazine’s annual “Best Companies to Work For” list. In 2009, Zappos was acquired by Amazon.com in a deal valued at $1.2 billion on the day of closing.

Tony is the author of “Delivering Happiness,” published in 2010, which outlines his path from starting a worm farm to life at Zappos. Tony shows how a very different kind of corporate culture is a powerful model for achieving success and happiness. “Delivering Happiness” debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times Best Seller list.

In October 2011, Tony was interviewed by Barbara Walters for a story on self-made entrepreneurs. The piece included a visit to the Zappos headquarters, which was dubbed what “might just be the wackiest workplace in America.”

In addition to his responsibilities at Zappos, Tony leads the “Downtown Project,” a group committed to transforming downtown Las Vegas into the most community-focused large city in the world. This transformation includes the relocation of the Zappos offices from Henderson, Nevada, to what was the old City Hall in downtown Las Vegas.