In a speech last spring to graduating seniors at his alma mater, Princeton University, Jeff Bezos led off his remarks with a memory from childhood.

He described how, as a 10-year-old, he accompanied his grandparents on a road trip. Bothered by his grandmother’s smoking in the front seat, the young Bezos did some calculations, and determined that, based on the number of puffs, his grandmother was taking nine years off her life—information he eagerly shared with her. His grandmother started crying, and his grandfather pulled over to share some wisdom.

“Jeff, one day you’ll understand that it’s harder to be kind than clever,” Bezos recalled his grandfather saying.

The anecdote revealed much about Bezos, illuminating aspects of his style that are apparent today. The founder and chief executive of Amazon.com Inc. is adept at quantifying things and looking several steps ahead. But Bezos is also sometimes caught flat-footed when seemingly rational actions spark an emotional response.

All those attributes were on full display in 2010 as Bezos steered Amazon through a remarkable year when he was named the Puget Sound Business Journal’s Executive of the Year.

Amazon had a string of strong quarters, growing sales, and profit in a still-tough economy; watched its stock reach an all-time high; made acquisitions and investments; and dominated the emerging electronic-book market.

Along the way, Bezos vastly increased his personal wealth, backed startups, and nurtured his space-flight project, Blue Origin. And under his leadership, Amazon stepped into some public relations minefields, including controversies over a self-published Kindle book on pedophilia and WikiLeaks’ use of Amazon’s cloud-computing services.

Bezos declined to answer questions for this profile, and Amazon declined to make other executives available. But interviews with his current and former associates help paint a picture of Bezos: someone highly focused on metrics, but willing to let projects take years to mature; a visionary who understands technology and turns conventional thinking on its head; and the public face of his company and its driving force of innovation.

Possessed of a startling, open-jawed guffaw, Bezos is described by those who know him as “geeky,” taking an intense, detailed interest in gadgets as well as movies and media—a Star Trek fan who does a dead-on imitation of Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Bezos applies that intensity to Amazon as a hands-on consultant to new and emerging technologies, while setting overall strategic direction.

While Bezos is described as approachable and egalitarian in some respects—one person remembers the billionaire picking up empty coffee cups after a meeting—he is clearly Amazon’s central, dominating figure.

During the recession and its shaky aftermath, Amazon’s longtime focus on convenience, selection, and driving down prices helped it grow and grab market share. The online retailer has consistently produced impressive results this year. During the third quarter that ended September 30—the company’s most recently reported financial period—sales jumped 39 percent, to $7.56 billion, and profit was up 16 percent to $231 million, beating the expectations of Wall Street analysts.

Amazon’s annual revenue was $30.7 billion in 2009, its last complete fiscal year.

At the same time, Amazon has shown a willingness to spend to position itself for future growth. Operating expenses for the third quarter were up more than 40 percent, to $7.29 billion.

Amazon kick-started the market for electronic books with its Kindle. The company has sought to maintain its lead in e-books even as Apple, Google, and others have entered. Amazon has introduced new, lower-cost Kindles; launched free Kindle applications for a range of other devices (including Apple’s popular iPhone and iPad); and continued to build its selection of digital titles—currently 750,000.

Observers say Bezos is likely already thinking ahead to innovations that the public, and competitors, aren’t aware of yet. Dave Schappell, an Amazon veteran and CEO of Seattle startup TeachStreet, pointed to Amazon Fresh, the company’s experimental grocery-delivery service in the Puget Sound region.

“In five years, they’ll figure out Amazon Fresh is the fuel because it gets them closer and closer to the customer,” said Schappell, whose startup has an investment from Bezos. “It might be learning how to do local, same-day, same-hour delivery and getting hundreds of thousands of delivery points.”

As Amazon’s fortunes have soared—the company’s stock has risen about 37 percent so far this year—so has Bezos’ personal fortune. The Amazon CEO’s net worth increased 43 percent in the past year, to $12.6 billion, according to Forbes’ September report on the 400 richest Americans. (Bezos was No. 18.) Bezos has 90 percent of his net worth tied up in Amazon stock.

Bezos has sold some $791 million in Amazon stock this year, though he hasn’t said what he’s doing with the money. He does have a private space project called Blue Origin that aims to take paying customers on suborbital flights.

Bezos also invests in startups through Bezos Expeditions. His investments have included Doxo, a startup that helps people go paper-free with their bills and records; Qliance Medical Management, which offers primary care without insurance; and Heartland Robotics, a developer of industrial robots.

Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from a profile of Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos appearing in the Puget Sound Business Journal. For more on Bezos and Amazon, go to the Business Journal.

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Eric Engleman writes for TechFlash, the Puget Sound Business Journal's technology blog.