Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has announced that he’ll step down as the online retailer major’s CEO later this year, after 27 years at the helm. Bezos will now take over as Amazon’s executive chairman and continue to be its biggest shareholder, the company said on Tuesday.
Bezos will hand over the CEO reins to Andy Jassy, the head of Amazon’s cash-cow cloud computing division and someone who’s been at Amazon for much of its existence. Jassy is one of Bezos’ most trusted lieutenants and he was widely seen as his successor, given that he was appointed the CEO’s “shadow” technical (where he got to accompany Bezos to all his meetings) way back in 2003.
Jassy has led Amazon Web Services (AWS) since it was founded in 2003 and was named the CEO of AWS in 2016. AWS is the cloud-computing arm of Amazon. In the Q4 2020, AWS saw its revenue jump 28 per cent to $12.7 billion from $9.95 billion a year earlier. It is estimated that about half of the company's revenue comes from Amazon Web Services (AWS). Jassy joined Amazon in 1997.He was raised in the New York City area. Jassy holds an MBA Degree from Harvard Business School. During his early career, he served as the first technical adviser to Bezos. Jassy is an avid New York sports fan. He holds a minority stake in the Seattle Kraken expansion National Hockey League team. Bezos holds a graduate degree in electrical engineering and computer science. He came to online retailing after quitting his job as a senior vice president at a Wall Street firm and driving across the US from New York on the East Coast to Seattle on the West Coast.
Bezos, started his company reportedly with an initial investment of $10,000 in 1994. His net worth now is about $180 billion making him the world's second-richest man. From four workers himself, his ex-wife and two programmers -- working out of his house, his company now has about a million workers worldwide.