On July 5, 2021, Jeff Bezos will officially step down as the chief executive of Amazon, the popular American Multinational Company he’s been in charge of since 1994, approximately 27 years.
This was announced last Wednesday at the company’s annual shareholder meeting. His position will be assumed by Andy Jassy, Amazon’s current head of Web Services who has been working for the company for 24 years.
Speaking concerning the announcement, Bezos expressed excitement to move into the “executive chair” role, as it would allow him focus his energy and attention on new products and early initiatives such as Bezos Earth Fund and Blue Origin. He also spoke confidently about Andy Jassy’s ability to handle Amazon by describing him as “an outstanding leader.” “He has the highest of high standards and I guarantee Andy will never let the universe make us typical, he has the energy needed to keep alive in us what has made us special,” Bezos said.
Call it a coincidence – maybe. July 5 also marks the date Amazon was incorporated in 1994 and in almost three decades, it has yielded enough profit to secure a spot for Bezos among the world’s richest people.
Now that Bezos is leaving the role of CEO, a major task awaiting Jassy as chief executive is to spearhead Amazon’s $8.45 billion MGM purchase which was also discussed at the shareholders meeting. Although voided, it was proposed that an hourly fulfillment associate should be allowed to serve on the company’s board during the shareholder meeting. This was proposed due to the backlash Amazon has faced recently concerning its treatment of warehouse workers.
Last Tuesday, an antitrust lawsuit was filed against Amazon by the District of Columbia for abusing its market dominance in e-commerce to harm competition. This was discussed during the shareholders meeting which led to asking Bezos about the capacity of Amazon. “I’d say we face intense competition from well-established companies everywhere we do business, in every industry,” Bezos said. “[Retail is] a very healthy industry and it’s far from a winner-take-all situation.”
Jassy’s current position will be taken over by Tableau CEO Adam Selipsky. As chief executive, Jassy will be managing telehealth offering, Amazon Care, and its satellite internet effort, Project Kuiper, among others. Responding to the level of expectation from Jassy, Bezos said none of the ideas are guaranteed to work, “All of them are gigantic investments and they’re all risks. Our whole history as a company is about taking risks, many of which have failed and many of which will fail, but we’ll continue to take big risks.” Bezos said.
