Following the departure of Jeff Bezos as CEO of Amazon, Andy Jassy will take over the reins of the e-commerce giant. But who is Bezos's 'natural heir'?
It is the successor that everyone expected within Amazon. The 'natural heir'. Andy Jassy will become the new CEO of Amazon after Jeff Bezos announced that he was leaving the position he held for 27 years. Although he will continue to serve on the board of directors, one of the richest men in the world has taken over from the man who has been the head of Amazon Web Services for 15 years. But who is Andy Jassy and why has no one been surprised that he takes command of one of the most listed companies in the world?
In Jeff Bezos' farewell letter, the Amazon founder wrote that "Andy is well known within the company and has been with Amazon almost as long as I have. He will be an outstanding leader and has my complete confidence." A trust that has been worked on for many years. Jassy, 53, joined the Amazon team in 1997 after finishing his studies at Harvard Business School.
In that year, the e-commerce giant went public, and as the value of the company skyrocketed, so did the career of the new Amazon CEO. Since joining Amazon, the businessman began to rise and was one of Jeff Bezos' 'shadow' advisers, former Amazon employees explained to Business Insider. His job was to attend all of the company's CEO meetings and serve as a kind of chief of staff. It wasn't until 2003 that he began to make a name for himself for building Amazon's most profitable service from scratch.
Andy Jassy, the mastermind behind Amazon's most profitable service
Amazon Web Services has been synonymous with Andy Jassy for many years. At least for Amazon employees. Since it started almost 20 years ago, the cloud computing platform has conquered the market with more than 30% market share. It is estimated that it generates more than 33,000 million euros a year and the pandemic has only demonstrated the need for cloud services. In the third quarter of 2020, Amazon Web Services had revenues of 9,633 million euros, 29% more than the same period in 2019.
Andy Jassy started on Amazon days after taking his last exam in college
With these figures, it's no wonder the platform is also Amazon's pretty girl. Especially if AWS generates close to 60% of the company's operating profit. Success is built on dedication and Jassy knows quite a bit about that. In a Harvard School of Business podcast, he explained that one Friday in May 1997 he took his last exam at school. "I started at Amazon on Monday." Those were the beginnings of the young man who started chasing Bezos in meetings and ended up receiving a salary of more than 20 million dollars in the last three years. The true American dream that has taken you to the top of the business world.
However, until Bezos announced his retirement as CEO, the name Andy Jassy was virtually unknown to millions of people. Married and father of two children, the businessman is also one of the owners of the Seattle Kraken team of the National Hockey League. A fact that within the world may be unknown but surely almost all employees knew. Because the new CEO of Amazon has kept a profile away from the spotlight. But within Amazon, he was one of the most important figures in the company.
Politics is also important
Not for nothing, in 2016, a column in The Washington Post predicted that Andy Jassy was the "obvious heir" to Jeff Bezos. Already at that time, Amazon Web Services was on the crest of the wave and the goal was to continue growing. Decisions, Amazon employees explained to Business Insider, were made in the conference room they called Chop. An acronym for Charterhouse of Parma ( The Charterhouse of Parma ), a book of Stendhal that Jassy read in college.
It was in this room where one of the most important decisions of Amazon was made and that reveals an important part of the personality of the one who will be the new CEO of Amazon. In January, Amazon Web Services stopped hosting the Parler app on its infrastructure, after the social network became home to far-right extremist groups. Apparently, Andy Jassy was a staunch defender of this measure, which was taken after the assault on the Capitol in the United States by supporters of former President Donald Trump.
Blocking Parler was an obvious decision for those who know Jassy. The businessman has been one of the most outspoken executives when it comes to politics and, through Twitter, denounced the murders of African Americans by police authorities. Apparently, Andy Jassy is a supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement. In addition, he was part of a meeting Amazon had with an organization representing African American workers to increase the number of black executives and ban non-inclusive language on Amazon.
In networks, he also celebrated the judicial decisions that defended the protections for migrant minors who arrive in the United States. He also advocated for outlawing discrimination against people from the LGBTQ community.
An expected decision
The news of the departure of Jeff Bezos has surprised, but the entrance of Andy Jassy has been well received by the business world. Ed Anderson, an analyst at Gartner, told TechCrunch that Amazon is a company driven by technological innovation. Something the new Amazon CEO has been doing at Amazon Web Services for many years.
"It is worth noting that Andy Jassy has an impressive track record of building and running a very large company. Under Andy's leadership, AWS has become one of the largest technology companies in the world and one of the most impactful in the world. defining what the future of computing will be ".
In this context, analysts also point out that the decision to put Jassy at the head of Amazon highlights the importance of the cloud management platform within the company. "Jassy's experience running AWS shows how important these services are to Amazon's business strategy, " Tom Johnson, Mindshare Worldwide's chief transformation officer, told The Guardian. "It will be interesting to see how that affects their strategy and balance that priority with a growing ad business and the retail giant."
It's the end of an era for Amazon, that of Jeff Bezos's leadership. Starting this year, Andy Jassy will take the reins of one of the most important companies in the world. The founder has set the bar very high, but there is nothing to indicate that the new Amazon CEO is not following in his footsteps.
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