Jeff Bezos to step down as Amazon CEO on July 5 at 57 as world's richest person

Jeff Bezos will officially step down as the CEO of Amazon on Monday, July 5. Now, 57, the online shopping giant’s CEO will be retiring as the world's richest person with a net worth of over $200 billion, as reported by Bloomberg's Billionaire's Index.

Jeff Bezos steps down as Amazon CEO

Jeff Bezos, in 1994 started Amazon as an online bookstore. The company grew with the internet revolution that happened in the following decade, to become the biggest online shopping platform in the world. After becoming the world’s richest person, the company’s CEO is now passing his helm over to the company’s top cloud executive, Andy Jassy. Following his step down, Bezos will take up an Executive Chairman position on Amazon's board.

Bezos, who is known for having one of the biggest paychecks in the world was reported to receive a whopping $81,840 in salary and $1.6 million in other compensation from the company last year. The company’s valuation had seen an uprise since the pandemic started. As the use of the online shopping platform skyrocketed during the period, Bezos’s net worth exploded by another $75 billion in 2020. Bezos had also drawn some criticism during his tenure as the CEO, as thousands of Amazon warehouse workers were reported to be living in poor conditions. Currently, Bezos’ company Blue Origin is set to launch a program taking passengers on suborbital and orbital trips.

Who is the new Amazon CEO?

Jeff Bezos will now be replaced by Andy Jassy who is the current CEO of Amazon Web Services, the company's cloud platform. The CEO’s step down and the new CEO’s appointment will happen on the same day the company was originally founded 27 years ago. Jassy, who joined Amazon back in 1997, has been a driving force in the company’s success. He is known for leading Amazon’s Web Services cloud team from day one. The cloud platform chief became an unavoidable part of the company’s growth in the past decade.

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