Jeff Bezos Explains He’s Stepping Down For Andy Jassy As Amazon CEO

Jeff Bezos step down as Amazon CEO, as Andy Jassy, who currently serves as CEO of AWS, will replace him in Q3 2021.

In a letter to Amazon employees published Tuesday afternoon, Bezos announced that he would transition to executive chairman, where he’ll focus on “new products and early initiatives.”

Jeff Bezos will step down as CEO of Amazon, becoming executive chairman of the company he conceived 27 years ago on a road trip to Seattle, and built into one of the world’s most valuable companies.

Bezos will make the transition in the third quarter of this year, when he will be replaced as CEO by longtime lieutenant Andy Jassy, who made his mark as the leader of Amazon’s fast-growing cloud business, the company announced Tuesday afternoon.

Here’s a statement from Bezos:

“Amazon is what it is because of invention. We do crazy things together and then make them normal. We pioneered customer reviews, 1-Click, personalized recommendations, Prime’s insanely-fast shipping, Just Walk Out shopping, the Climate Pledge, Kindle, Alexa, marketplace, infrastructure cloud computing, Career Choice, and much more. If you do it right, a few years after a surprising invention, the new thing has become normal. People yawn. That yawn is the greatest compliment an inventor can receive. When you look at our financial results, what you’re actually seeing are the long-run cumulative results of invention. Right now I see Amazon at its most inventive ever, making it an optimal time for this transition.”

“As Exec Chair I 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,” he wrote. “I’ve never had more energy, and this isn’t about retiring. I’m super passionate about the impact I think these organizations can have.”