Jeff Bezos is Stepping Down as Amazon CEO & Will Focus on His Other Passions

By
Ashley Seek
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It appears that Jeff Bezos has achieved humanity’s greatest dream:

To be so wealthy that he can step down from the most lucrative post in the world, just to focus on his other passions in life.

Jeff Bezos is Stepping Down as Amazon CEO & Will Focus on His Other Passions

The founder of Amazon will be stepping down as chief executive officer – 27 years after he first started the company.

The announcement comes amidst a company record: for the first time, Amazon has reported a third consecutive record profit and quarterly sales above US$100 billion (~S$133 billion).

Not really surprising since everyone’s staying home and being their stuff online.

Mr Bezos is set to become executive chairman, as current cloud computing chief Andy Jassy prepares to take over the CEO position.

The transition is scheduled for the third quarter of 2021.

Mr Bezos has since updated his “itinerary” in a note on Amazon’s website.

“This journey began some 27 years ago,” Mr Bezos said. “As much as I still tap dance into the office, I’m excited about this transition.

“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.”

The Day 1 Fund and the Bezos Earth Fund happen to fall under his philanthropic efforts. Just last year, Mr Bezos had made a staggering US$10 billion donation to the cause.

Apart from charity ventures, Mr Bezos will also be concentrating on his other businesses, including The Washington Post newspaper and the private space firm Blue Origin.

“I’ve never had more energy, and this isn’t about retiring. I’m super passionate about the impact I think these organisations can have,” he wrote.

Well, with those muscles of his, he’ll be hard-pressed to be less passionate about anything alright.

Successor

Meanwhile, his successor Mr Jassy is credited with the discovery of Amazon Web Services (AWS) – a cloud platform that’s utilised by millions, including Goody Feed.

In awarding Mr Jassy’s promotion, Amazon has underlined the importance of Web services to Amazon’s future.

“Jassy’s background in steering AWS shows just how top of mind those services are to Amazon’s business strategy. It will be interesting to see how that affects their strategy and balancing that priority with a growing ad business and the commerce behemoth,” said Mr Tom Johnson, chief transformation officer at Mindshare Worldwide.

Founded

Amazon was started in 1994 as an Internet bookseller, and has since become an absolute behemoth that “presides over” online retail, with additional connections to various other sectors such as streaming music and television, groceries, artificial intelligence and more.

They have also thrived since the emergence of the Covid-19 outbreak, as consumers looked to Internet services for procurement of home staples and medical supplies.

Net sales reportedly rose to US$125.56 billion, beating analyst estimates of US$119.7 billion.

It’s unknown if they’ve given any 16-month bonus to their staff, though.

Meanwhile, another notable success who has turned to philanthropic efforts is Chinese billionaire Jack Ma – who previously spent two decades cultivating Alibaba into a $460 billion business.

“Before I’m 70 years old, I can do something in other fields, in areas like education,” he had said in 2018.

Featured Image: Christos S / Shutterstock.com

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Ashley Seek
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