Jeff Bezos will step down as the chief executive officer of the company that he founded over 25 years ago.
The billionaire and Amazon made the announcement on February 2. They revealed that a new CEO will be taking over at the start of the third quarter. Andy Jassy, head of Amazon Web Services, will take the baton from Bezos according to the company. The famous businessman alerted Amazon employees of the change via a memo, which was also posted on Amazon’s blog.
Scroll down to see his memo!
Bezos announced his new role and full support of his successor. “In the Exec Chair role, I intend to focus my energies and attention on new products and early initiatives,” he wrote in a letter to employees. “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.”
He continued to highlight all the companies accomplishments while thanking the employees for making his dream a reality.
“We’ve done crazy things together, and then made 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 get it right, a few years after a surprising invention, the new thing has become normal,” Jeff explained. “People yawn. And that yawn is the greatest compliment an inventor can receive.”
The billionaire made it a point to explain that he will still be very hands-on and is definitely not slowing down when it comes to working.
“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. 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.”
Bezos announced that he was getting divorced from MacKenzie Scott in January of 2019. After all the financials were settled, Scott received 25% of the couples’ stock, which translated into around 4% of the company or $38 billion.
Earlier this week, MacKenzie made headlines by donating $25 million to an Indiana charity. The generous gift is the largest donation that the United Way of Central Indiana has ever received from one donor in its 102-year history.
Both Jeff and MacKenzie are not afraid to put their money behind organizations and causes they believe in!
