Jeff Bezos will step down from his position of CEO of Amazon in the third quarter of 2021 and transition into the Executive Chair of the company.
On Tuesday, Amazon announced that the company’s founder Jeff Bezos will step down from his position of CEO in the third quarter of 2021. He will be transitioning to Executive Chair of the company and current head of Amazon Web Services (AWS) Andy Jassy will take over as the CEO of the company.
The announcement came as part of Amazon’s fourth-quarter earnings report. In a letter to employees, Bezos said: “This journey began some 27 years ago. Amazon was only an idea, and it had no name.” He wrote: “I’m excited to announce that this Q3 [Quarter 3] I’ll transition to Executive Chair of the Amazon Board and Andy Jassy will become CEO. In the Exec Chair role, I intend to focus my energies and attention on new products and early initiatives. 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 has been the CEO of Amazon since its inception in 1994. He oversaw as the company grew from an online bookseller into a $1.7 trillion worth global retail and logistics giant. Bezos is one of the world’s wealthiest people.
Bezos said: “Being the CEO of Amazon is a deep responsibility, it’s consuming and with that responsibility, it is hard to give attention on anything else.” He also said: “As much as I still tap dance into the office, I’m excited about this transition.”
Jassy, who will replace Bezos, has worked for Amazon since 1997 currently serves as the CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS). In 2003, Jassy founded AWS, the cloud services division of the company which has been one of the most profitable units of Amazon.
