Listed below are three key issues to know in regards to the new chief of the e-commerce large.
He first labored in a advertising position, after which was positioned on a “SWAT staff” undertaking exploring different potential product classes for Amazon past books. Jassy pitched coming into the music enterprise as a part of the undertaking.
Jassy additionally frolicked within the early 2000s ready referred to on the time as Bezos’ “shadow,” a job much like a company chief of employees, which was designed to coach promising younger execs, in keeping with Ann Hiatt, a former govt enterprise associate for Bezos throughout Amazon’s early days (the place she sat at considered one of Bezos’ now-legendary “door desks.”) Now a tech-leadership advisor, Hiatt stated she labored intently with Jassy throughout his time as Bezos’ “shadow.”
“Should you’d requested me yesterday what I believed the timeline can be of Jeff stepping down as CEO, I might not have guessed now. However if you happen to’d stated, ‘Okay, he is stepping down, who will he select?’ the primary, prompt title out of my mouth can be Andy Jassy,” Hiatt stated.
“I watched him blossom into this stunning complimentary govt to Jeff, the place he realized to anticipate the questions Jeff would ask, the issues he would hate, the issues he would love, his management fashion,” Hiatt stated. “Whereas Andy, after all, has his personal unbelievable model of govt, he was educated with these instincts, to prioritize the issues that Jeff would and make selections the identical method Jeff would when he is not within the room. Clearly, he is taken that on to nice heights in his position as CEO of AWS.”
Jassy was there when Amazon determined to launch AWS and function it as a separate firm that served Amazon.com the identical method it could every other buyer.
“From the very begin of AWS, we decided that if we wished to have the ability to serve a whole lot of Amazon’s client rivals … that we needed to make AWS its personal separable enterprise with a distinct management staff and the place Amazon’s client companies have been an vital buyer however simply considered one of many vital exterior prospects,” Jassy instructed CNN of the choice in an interview for a 2019 CNN documentary on Amazon’s historical past. “We deal with Amazon’s client enterprise as an exterior buyer.”
On the time, many have been skeptical of the choice, provided that the computing enterprise was a far cry from Amazon’s core on-line retail actions. However Jassy has since overseen the expansion of AWS into the spine of a lot of the web — one thing he managed regardless of not having a lot of a tech background.
“He brings fairly a level of humility; individuals did not fairly understand who he was till lately,” stated Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a Yale Faculty of Administration professor. “He is undoubtedly very humble, he is not a self promoter, which is form of uncommon to be at this stage within the tech area.”
How a lot does he earn?
In 2019, his whole compensation was $348,809. However a 12 months earlier, his pay totaled greater than $19.7 million, because of an almost $19.5 million inventory award that vested that 12 months. Against this, Jeff Bezos’ base wage was $81,840, and whole compensation in 2019 was almost $1.7 million, although Bezos owns a bigger share of the corporate’s inventory (almost 15% of the overall, as of the 2020 Proxy assertion).
It’s unclear whether or not Jassy’s compensation will change after turning into CEO.
The succession plan
On the time, Jassy stated he did not anticipate Bezos to depart his place within the close to future.
“I really feel very lucky that Jeff just isn’t going anyplace anytime quickly, and none of us need him to. He is simply such an uncommon chief and a lot a part of the tradition that I believe he’ll be right here for a really very long time.”
Whereas he was coy about his plans — telling Harlow, “It is type of onerous to think about life with out Jeff operating the corporate” — analysts say Bezos has been planning for the transition for years.
Yale’s Sonnenfeld, who authored a e-book on CEO transitions known as “The Hero’s Farewell,” recalled a dialog with Bezos at a tech convention about seven years in the past throughout which the Amazon chief stated he’d studied the Invoice Gates-Steve Ballmer transition course of.
“This has been his plan,” Sonnenfeld stated of Bezos. “He wished to cross this factor on as a wholesome enterprise, and that is the best time to do it.”