Wednesday saw us waking up to some news that comes as a shock to both critics and fans of popular e-commerce service, Amazon. The founder and CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos announced that he will be renouncing his role as the chief, starting Q3 2021.
This comes as a peculiar shift since we seldom see sudden management changes, kept under wraps. Bezos will be shifting to the role of being the executive chairman of Amazon's Board of Directors.
Taking up his role as CEO is Andy Jassy, who is the present chief of Amazon Web Services (AWS), having been at Amazon for a lengthy 24 years. Shortly after announcing the news of his management shift, Jeff, addressing the various employees of Amazon present all over the world said that he was confident that Jassy would be able to handle the company and take over from the founder.
The change comes at a good time for Amazon, with no major issues, however, Jassy takes up the reins from the founder at a time when lawmakers have growing concerns regarding previous lawsuits held against the company, and, Andy will now be the topmost exec, being held responsible for whatever happens in relation to the pre-existing issues or lawsuits.
Who is Andy Jassy?
Jassy, who is currently 52 years of age joined Amazon way back in 1997 after finishing his course at Harvard Business School. He then went on to found Amazon Web Services, which as per the company’s website, is a cloud hosting product that creates the infrastructure used by millions of companies, schools, and governments to run websites and apps.
In the years since he was a key part in the growth of AWS into a cloud platform used by millions, capable of dominating legacy players like Oracle Corp and Microsoft Corp. Jassy is quite well known for understanding various technical details and has been responsible for a unique aura that he brings to the various keynotes at AWS’s conference held at Las Vegas.
To add to this, he has spoken out in the past in relation to social issues, tweeting about the need for police accountability and, he is also an avid supporter of LGBTQ+ rights.
Tom Johnson, CTO, Mindshare Worldwide stated that Jassy’s background in steering AWS shows just how good and important those services are to Amazon’s business strategy.
Do note that Amazon announced today that it was not announcing an AWS replacement for Jassy as of now.
