Who is the CEO of Amazon?
Jeff Bezos will remain CEO of Amazon (AMZN) until Q3 2021, at which point he will turn the company over to Andy Jassy and transition to a new role as Executive Chair. These plans were largely kept under wraps, although speculation had begun to mount that Jassy would be a natural successor.
The news was broken in Amazon’s Q4 2020 earnings report, in which the firm also announced its first $100 billion quarter. About 28% of this revenue growth was attributed to Amazon Web Services, which Jassy has been in charge of since it was created.
Bezos has given Jassy his full confidence in the role and markets seemed to welcome the news positively too – with shares of Amazon increasing in value by 1% in extended trading on Tuesday 2 February.
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Why did Jeff Bezos resign as CEO of Amazon?
Jeff Bezos announced he would be resigning to focus more time on his other ventures – including the Bezos Earth Fund, his spaceship company Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and the Amazon Day 1 Fund. Bezos is by no means retiring and intends to stay engaged in any important Amazon projects – such as acquisitions and high-cost strategies.
Bezos is ending his 27-year reign on a high note, having taken Amazon from nothing more than a bookseller to one of the world’s most valuable companies.
Who is Andy Jassy?
Andy Jassy, 53, joined Amazon in 1997 just three days after graduating from Harvard Business School. So, Jassy has been at Amazon almost as long as Bezos himself. Before joining Amazon, Jassy had founded and managed a marketing consultancy company.
Alongside 57 other people, Jassy founded Amazon Web Services in 2006 and became the company’s CEO in 2016, overseeing the platform’s growth. The platform now has a user base of millions worldwide, including well-known businesses – such as Verizon and McDonald’s – Silicon Valley start-ups, schools, and governments. AWS has roughly a 30% market share of the cloud computing market and owns almost half of the public cloud infrastructure.
AWS is the largest contributor to Amazon’s operating income – bringing in 52% in October 2020.
Jassy is known for his highly technical expertise, and his outspoken remarks about competitors – such as Oracle Corp and Microsoft – and social issues, like police brutality and LGBTQ+ rights.
What is Andy Jassy’s plan for Amazon?
Now that Jassy is CEO of Amazon, it will be interesting to see how the company alters its growth plans and balances the core functions of cloud services, e-commerce, and advertising. However, speculation has already started that Jassy’s background in AMS indicates that cloud computing will be at the core of Amazon’s strategy going forward.
How much is the CEO of Amazon worth?
New CEO Andy Jassy is predicted to have a net worth of around $392 million,1 which pales in comparison to Jeff Bezos’s $192 billion fortune. In his current role as CEO of AWS, Jassy has a total compensation of $348,809 a year.
Alongside Bezos, Andy Jassy is one of the top individual insider shareholders in Amazon, holding over 2791 units of Amazon.com stock, worth approximately $277,548,700.
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1Wallmine, 2021