By Salim Yunusa
Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, will be stepping down as CEO and transitioning to executive chair of the company’s board later this year.
Amazon has propelled Bezos to become one of the wealthiest people on the planet, with a net worth of some $188 billion, according to Bloomberg data. He was only recently unseated as the richest man on the planet earlier this month when Tesla chief executive Elon Musk’s net worth surpassed his.
Andy Jassy, the current chief executive of Amazon Web Services, will replace Bezos as the e-commerce giant’s new CEO.
In an email sent to Amazon staff posted on the company’s website, Bezos reflected on how the firm he founded in 1994 has exploded into the e-commerce behemoth it is today over the past few decades.
“As much as I still tap dance into the office, I’m excited about this transition,” Bezos wrote. “Millions of customers depend on us for our services, and more than a million employees depend on us for their livelihoods. 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 executive chair of the board, Bezos said he 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.”
Bezos also expressed confidence in his successor, Jassy, saying he “has been at Amazon almost as long as I have.”
“He will be an outstanding leader, and he has my full confidence,” Bezos added.
Jassy has been with Amazon since 1997, and has driven new growth for the company as head of its cloud-computing arm, AWS.
