San Francisco: World’s richest person Jeff Bezos will be stepping down as Amazon CEO tomorrow (Monday, July 5), 27 years after he founded the e-commerce colossus as he sets forth to expand his private space exploration firm, philanthropy and other endeavours. Bezos, at 57, is handing over the top role to Andy Jassy after transforming a modest online bookseller platform to one of the most powerful corporations in the world.
Bezos will still remain executive chairman and Amazon’s biggest shareholder, while his successor Andy Jassy takes over the executive role. Jassy joined Amazon as a marketing manager in 1997 and led Amazon Web Services (AWS) since it was founded in 2003. He was named the CEO of the Amazon Cloud arm in 2016.
Bezos, who built an online bookstore into a $1.7 trillion technology empire reaching into space, announced in February he will be stepping down as CEO at the apex of his career to focus on innovations.
He had said that he chose the date because July 5 is a sentimental one for him. “It’s the date that Amazon was incorporated in 1994, exactly 27 years ago.”
“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.
AWS logged a $54 billion annualised run rate — a 32 per cent year-over-year growth — in March quarter this year.