Updated July 5th, 2021 at 14:38 IST

Who is Andy Jassy? Read details about the man who replaces Jeff Bezos as new Amazon CEO

World’s richest person Jeff Bezos will step down as Amazon CEO 27 years after he started the e-commerce giant and the position will be taken over by Andy Jassy.

Reported by: Aanchal Nigam
IMAGE: AP/Shutterstock | Image:self
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On July 5, the world’s richest person Jeff Bezos will step down as Amazon CEO 27 years after he started the e-commerce giant and the position will be taken over by Andy Jassy. While Bezos will expand his private space exploration firm, Jassy will be Amazon CEO who joined the company in 1997 as a marketing manager. Jassy is currently chief executive of Amazon’s rapidly-growing cloud services division Amazon Web Services (AWS) but on Monday he will be installed as Amazon’s second-ever chief executive. Bezos will become executive chair of the board in a bid to step away from day-to-day control of the business. The handover is taking place on the 27th anniversary of Amazon’s official founding on July 5, 1994.

“Andy is well known inside the company and has been at Amazon almost as long as I have. He will be an outstanding leader, and he has my full confidence. Right now I see Amazon at its most inventive ever, making it an optimal time for this transition,” Bezos had said while announcing his resignation last year.

Who is Andy Jassy?

While Andy Jassy joined Amazon in 1997 after it was founded in 1994 and is currently the head of AWS, the unit that he leads, as per reports, has revamped how firms buy technology making Jassy for most of the last decade as the most important person in the tech sector. 

As per reports, Jassy simplified computing services into companies’ component pieces and then offering them essentially for rent over the internet. The business was reportedly initially dismissed by the software giants including Oracle Inc before that company and others quickly sought to emulate the products of AWS’ strategy. 

In the earnings report, Amazon also said that 53-year-old Jassy would succeed Bezos in the third quarter of 2021. It also reported that AWS pulled in $12.7 billion in sales in the last quarter of 2020 which further made the unit a $50 billion business on an annual basis.

After completing MBA from Harvard Business School, Jassy had joined Amazon in 1997 as a marketing manager. He currently lives in Seattle where Amazon is headquartered. As per reports, in the early 2000s, Jassy had even worked as a technical assistant for Bezos and was a key person to lead Amazon to look outside just the online book store. 

Andy Jassy is primarily known as the founder of Amazon Web Services that he reportedly founded with just a team of 57 people and after 13 years, he got promoted to AWS CEO, owing to the product’s success. He is married to Elana Rochelle Caplan with two kids. It was decided that he would be Amazon’s next CEO after consumer chief Jeff Wilke announced his retirement as Jassy was the company’s second-highest ranking official. 

IMAGE: AP/Shutterstock

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Published July 5th, 2021 at 14:38 IST