Nicholas Lovejoy joined Amazon as its sixth employee.

Date worked for Amazon: 1995 — 1998, September 2016 — Present

First Amazon title: Recruiting and Operations

What he's doing now: "Principal TPM Middle Mile" at Amazon

Lovejoy worked with Bezos at D.E. Shaw, and was a high school math teacher in Seattle before moving to Amazon. Once he arrived, he made the suggestion to put packing tables in Amazon's warehouse. To most it would seem obvious, but Bezos, who had suggested buying knee-pads to make packing on the ground easier, praised him for years for the completely "brilliant idea."

All of Amazon's desks were subsequently made out of doors.

He left the company in 1998 to go backpacking around the world with his girlfriend, but rejoined Amazon in September 2016 to help build Amazon Transportation Services.