Jeff Bezos to step down: Who is Andy Jassy?
JEFF BEZOS will be stepping down as Amazon CEO to make way for Andy Jassy, the company announced today. Who is Andy Jassy?
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Andy Jassy will soon take over from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the company announced in a briefing yesterday detailing financial performance. Mr Bezos has helmed the company since founding it in 1994, and will now step back for new leadership. Instead, he will move to Amazon's board as executive chair.
Who is Andy Jassy?
Andy Jassy will take over from Mr Bezos in the third quarter of 2021.
While Mr Bezos has stayed on since he created the company in 1994, Mr Jassy joined not long after.
After studying at Harvard, he joined Amazon as a marketing manager in 1997.
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He graduated to founder of Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2006 wioth a team of 57 people.
Mr Jassy has led the service since 2006, when he became senior vice president
Ten years later, the longtime Amazon employee became AWS CEO, a position which he has served since 2016.
In a reecnt letter to Amazon employees, Mr Bezos awarded him some high praise.
The current CEO said he has "full confidence" in his incoming successor.
He wrote: "I’m excited to announce that this Q3 I’ll transition to Executive Chair of the Amazon Board and Andy Jassy will become CEO.
"In the Exec Chair role, I intend to focus my energies and attention on new products and early initiatives.
"Andy is well known inside the company and has been at Amazon almost as long as I have."
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"He will be an outstanding leader, and he has my full confidence."
In an additional statement, he said it was the "optimal time" for Mr Jassy's accession to CEO.
He said: “Amazon is what it is because of invention. We do crazy things together and then make them normal.
"We pioneered customer reviews, 1-Click, personalised recommendations, Prime’s insanely-fast shipping, Just Walk Out shopping, the Climate Pledge, Kindle, Alexa, marketplace, infrastructure cloud computing, Career Choice, and much more."
“If you do it right, a few years after a surprising invention, the new thing has become normal.
"People yawn. That yawn is the greatest compliment an inventor can receive.
"When you look at our financial results, what you’re actually seeing are the long-run cumulative results of invention.
"Right now I see Amazon at its most inventive ever, making it an optimal time for this transition.”