Washington: Billionaire and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has announced that he will step down this year itself. The man to replace him will be Amazon Web Services (AWS) chief Andy Jassy. He will be Amazon.com’s next chief executive officer. But then who is Andy Jassy. Here’s what you need to know about Amazon’s next BOSS.
Jassy joined Amazon in 1997 and has a MBA from Harvard Business School (HBA). “I took my last final exam at HBS, the first Friday of May in 1997 and I started Amazon next Monday,” Jassy said in a Harvard Business School podcast in September. “No, I didn’t know what my job was going to be, or what my title was going to be. It was super important to the Amazon people that I joined Monday and that I did.
Jassy is married to Elana Rochelle Caplan and is the father of two children. He is also a self-proclaimed sports and music fan.
In 2006, Jassy founded Amazon’s AWS, Amazon’s cloud service platform. It is used by millions of businesses across the world. The service competes with Microsoft Corp’s ‘Azure’ and Alphabet Inc’s ‘Google Cloud’.
Jassy is one of Bezos’ most trusted lieutenants. It had been predicted earlier that he will succeed Bezos. Jassy was appointed the CEO’s ‘shadow’ technical (where he got to accompany Bezos to all his meetings) way back in 2003. He is credited as having written the AWS original business plan and having run the division since its launch in 2006. Jassy’s elevation also signals the importance of AWS among Amazon’s array of divisions.
Jassy has occasionally spoken out on social issues. He tweeted about the need for police accountability after Breonna Taylor, a Black woman, was slain in her home by white policemen during a botched raid, and in favor of LGBTQ rights.
Amazon reported Tuesday its third consecutive record profit and quarterly sales above $100 billion for the first time. At the same time the company also announced that Jassy will replace Bezos.