Amazon founder Jeff Bezos steps down as CEO to be succeeded by AWS CEO

Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon, takes a step back from his own company. In the third quarter of this year, he will hand over the day-to-day management to current AWS CEO Andy Jassy. The 57-year-old Bezos will continue as executive chairman.

Jeff Bezos

Amazon announces the change at the top of the company when it presents its quarterly results. In his new role, Bezos wants to focus more on new products and new initiatives. The Amazon founder writes that in an email addressed to employees.

According to Bezos, his role as CEO has many responsibilities and is time-consuming, making it difficult for him to pay attention to other matters. In his new role as Executive Chair, he wants to remain involved with Amazon, but also free up time to devote to the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post and his “other passions.” Bezos says he has more energy than ever and is not retiring. Bezos has been CEO since he founded Amazon in 1994.

Andy Jassy

Andy Jassy will be the new CEO of Amazon from the third quarter, he is now the boss of Amazon Web Services. Jassy joined Amazon in 1997 as a marketing manager and in 2003 led the team that founded AWS.

Amazon achieved record revenue of $125.6 billion in the quarter. That was 44 percent more than a year ago in the same quarter. Amazon’s annual turnover in 2020 amounted to 386.1 billion dollars, 37 percent more than in 2019. The profit was 22.9 billion dollars, converted about 19 billion euros.