Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, announced on Tuesday, that he would be stepping down as the Chief Executive Officer of the e-commerce empire.
Bezos, the world’s second richest man, made this known in a letter addressed to his employees.
He announced Andy Jassy, the head of Amazon’s cloud computing unit, as the new CEO, who will take over in the third quarter of 2021, while he will become the executive chair of Amazon’s board.
“Being the CEO of Amazon is a deep responsibility, and it’s consuming. When you have a responsibility like that, it’s hard to put attention on anything else.”
“As Exec Chair I will stay engaged in important Amazon initiatives but also have the time and energy I need to focus on the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and my other passions.”
“I’ve never had more energy, and this isn’t about retiring. I’m super passionate about the impact I think these organisations can have.” the letter partly read.
Bezos’ successor, Jassy, is a Harvard graduate and has been with Amazon since 1997 and helped develop Amazon Web Services, which has long been seen as the profit engine of the company.
The division provides cloud computing and storage for governments and companies including McDonald’s and Netflix.
“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.” Bezos stated.
57-year-old Bezos has headed Amazon since it’s inception as an online bookstore in 1994.
The Amazon boss made over $90 billion in 2020, even as the covid-19 pandemic hit billions of people, causing unprecedented losses.
