Amazon's Jeff Bezos will soon be stepping down from the CEO position and passing the torch to Andy Jassy. Bezos expressed confidence in Jassy, who will be taking over the tech goliath's reins by the third quarter of 2021. The longtime Amazon CEO recently announced that following the transition he will be redirecting his focus towards a handful of other ventures.
The 57-year-old believes the company will continue to head in the right direction following the transition, claiming Amazon is in its “most inventive” period right now. Despite having led the company for almost three decades, Bezos doesn't seem to be too concerned about the change in leadership, stating “full confidence” that the new CEO will end up becoming “an outstanding leader.” This begs the question of, who exactly is Amazon's Andy Jassy, and how will the new leadership affect the company's innovative aspirations?
Bezos' open letter highlighted how Jassy is “well known” within Amazon and had been at the company “almost as long” as Bezos. According to The Washington Post, a publication owned by Bezos, Jassy serves as the CEO of Amazon Web Services, and is among the two of the company's cornerstones, along with Amazon Chief of Consumer Business Jeff Wilke. According to the report, Jassy had been in talks to become Amazon's next CEO since last year, shortly after Wilke announced plans to retire. Jassy has been a force in the company since becoming a part of it back in 1997, helping to pioneer its position in the cloud computing and software services industry. As the head of Amazon's cloud computing, Jassy led the company to a new market that has gone on to become as successful as its e-commerce platform. Over the years, AWS' growing business and customer base has become a significant contributor to the company's overall revenue.
Will Anything Change At Amazon After The Transition?
Amazon is no stranger to expanding into different markets, regardless of the potentially high risks involved. Given Jassy's track record of successfully pioneering AWS and leading the company through untested waters, it's likely that this won't be changing any time soon, despite Amazon's imminent change in leadership. Given that the transition has been planned for some time, it's unlikely that there will be any drastic changes for the company or its operations.
Furthermore, not every Amazon executive believes Bezos will completely be relinquishing control over the company, with Amazon's Chief Of Finance Brian Olsavsky quoted as saying that Bezos is “not going anywhere.” Adding that the transition is more akin to a “restructuring of who's doing what” than a surrendering of power. While Jassy will undoubtedly become the new face of Amazon, it seems that Bezos, still being the majority company shareholder, is likely to remain a major presence and influence. Only time will tell when Amazon will be investing in its next high-profile acquisition or announcing its next big invention but, for now, it's safe to say it's business as usual.
Source: The Washington Post