Jeff Bezos ‘Amazon’s Chief Executive’ to step down as CEO

Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s billionaire founder, will step down as chief executive, the company reported on Wednesday. Bezos, who might remain chairman, will hand over power to Andy Jassy, chief executive of the fast-growing cloud storage company, Amazon Web Services.

Mr. Bezos has represented for more than two decades, the change of the shield is set to ripple out. He became one of the most impactful technology and business leaders in the world.The transition will take effect, the company said, in the second half of 2021.

“It’s a profound duty to be Amazon’s CEO, and it’s consuming. It’s difficult to pay attention to something else when you have a duty like that“, Mr. Bezos said in a letter to Amazon employees.

Lately, Mr. Bezos had stepped aside from much of Amazon’s day-to-day business activities , assigning those duties to two major deputies, including Mr. Jassy. But last spring, the pandemic pulled Mr. Bezos back into Amazon’s everyday operations. As Amazon struggled with a flood of demand for e-commerce, labor unrest and supply chain problems caused by the coronavirus.

Since its inception of online book store in 1994, Jeff Bezos dreamt of an e-commerce platform and founded Amazon. The company now employs 1.3 million people worldwide and has a hand in everything from package delivery and video streaming to cloud services and advertising.

What’s next for Bezos?

Bezos said he planned to focus on “new products and initiatives”.

In September 2018 he announced, a philanthropic initiative to fund existing non-profits that support homeless people and develop a platform of new, non-profit, tier-one preschools in low-income communities.

Blue Origin: Bezos’ space company, which he aims to make access to space cheaper with reusable launch vehicles.