World’s second richest man and the Chief Executive Officer of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, has announced he will be stepping down from his role later in 2021.
Reports say the announcement was contained in an email to employees on Tuesday. Jeff Bezos said he was ‘excited to announce’ in the third quarter of 2021, he’ll resign as the Amazon CEO and instead be the Executive Chair of the Amazon Board.
Jeff Bezos will be replaced by Andy Jassy as the new Amazon CEO.
Mr. Jassy currently runs Amazon’s cloud business and has been with the company for nearly 24 years.
Bezos said, “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.
“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,” he added. “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.”
Bezos founded Amazon.com 27 years ago and since then morphed the one-time online bookstore into mega-retailer with international reach in a range of categories. The e-commerce giant, under Bezos’ leadership, surpassed a $1 trillion market cap just last year in January. The company is now reportedly worth over $1.6 trillion.
