Jeff Bezos to Step Down as Amazon CEO; Andy Jassy to Take the Reins

In an email to employees, Jeff Bezos announced yesterday that he will be stepping down from his position as the Amazon CEO in Q3 2021. In the same email, he also announced that Andy Jassy, now former CEO of Amazon Web Services, will replace him as CEO of the tech and e-commerce giant.

Bezos will next take up the position of Executive Chair of the Amazon Board. As Exec Chair, he plans to focus on new products and early initiatives, the latter of which includes leading on social issues like climate change and minimum wage.

Bezos said in his statement,

As Amazon became large, we decided to use our scale and scope to lead on important social issues. Two high-impact examples: Our $15 minimum wage and the Climate Pledge. In both cases, we staked out leadership positions and then asked others to come along with us. In both cases, it’s working. Other large companies are coming our way,

Jeff Bezos

Bezos, 57, has led Amazon since he founded the company in his garage 27 years ago. In the time that has passed since, Amazon has become a multi-billion dollar company and has also made Bezos the richest man in the world.

The credit for Amazon’s success, Bezos believes, belongs to the company’s appetite for invention.

Invention is the root of our success. We’ve done crazy things together, and then made them normal. We pioneered customer reviews, 1-Click, personalized recommendations, Prime’s insanely-fast shipping, Just Walk Out shopping, the Climate Pledge, Kindle, Alexa, marketplace, infrastructure cloud computing, Career Choice, and much more.

Jeff Bezos

In his statement, he also said that he is excited about this transition and for what the future holds for Amazon. The company clocked a net sales value of $125.56 billion in Q4 of 2020, which ended December 31. This is the first time Amazon has crossed the $100 billion mark.

The company’s next CEO, Jassy, joined Amazon in 1997 and has an MBA from Harvard Business School, according to the company’s website. He founded Amazon Web Services (AWS) and grew it into a cloud platform used by millions, the company said.