The founder of internet behemoth Amazon, Jeff Bezos, has stepped down from the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company, handing the baton over to Andrew Jassy.
Bezos founded the company in 1994 as an online bookstore, growing it to a trillion-dollar company and helming affairs for over 20 years.
Holding the largest share in the company, 51.2 million shares, representing 10 percent, Bezos’s handover wouldn’t dent his influence at the firm.
He’ll take the position of executive chair, turning his focus on other businesses like his space company Blue Origin, among others.
Earlier in the year, Bezos had said of his transition, “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.
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“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.”
The richest man on the globe – currently at $200 billion – has seen a fair share of controversies including his monopolistic market behaviour, dodging taxes, but that hasn’t stopped Bezos from growing the company’s bottom line, worth almost $1.8 trillion.
Recently, a petition to not allow Bezos back to Earth after he travels to space with a crewed flight – its first – by Blue Origin almost garnered 150,000 signatures.
His successor, Jassy, served as head of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) since 2003 after joining in 1997.
AWS was birthed following a series of brainstorming sessions between Bezos and Jassy who ideated a cloud computing platform.
In 2016, Jassy moved up the ranks from senior vice president to CEO of AWS where he received company perks in form of shares and remuneration.
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