Andrew R. Jassy is the new CEO of Amazon after Jeff Bezos’s step down

In a letter to employees announcing the move, Bezos said: “I’m excited to announce that this Q3 I’ll transition to Executive Chair of the Amazon Board and Andy Jassy will become CEO. In the Exec Chair role, I intend to focus my energies and attention on new products and early initiatives.” He also added, “ I haven’t had more energy than this, and I am definitely, not retiring, but focusing on important Amazon initiatives.”

Andy Jassy is more than capable to lead Amazon, after all, he founded Amazon Web Services, which generated more than $13.5 billion in yearly operating profits. Amazon Web Services, the company ‘s on-demand cloud computing platform and APIs, was responsible for nearly 64 percent of the entire company’s operating profits in 2020. Andy Jassy is also one of the owners of the Seattle Krakken, of the National Hockey League.

Born on January 13, 1968, Andy Jassy is the son of Margery and Everett L. Jassy of Scarsdale, New York.  He grew up in Scarsdale, and attended Scarsdale High School. His father was a senior partner and chairman in a law firm called Dewey Ballantine in New York. Academically sharp, Jassy graduated from Harvard College with Honors. He was also the advertising manager of The Harvard Crimson,  the student newspaper run by Harvard College undergraduates.

After graduation, Jassy worked as a project manager for a collectible company, called MBI. . He went on to secure an MBA from the Harvard Business School.  He becomes the marketing manager of Amazon, back 1997.

In 2003, Jassy founded Amazon Web Services, with a team of 57 people. It was created with the idea of redefining web services and the way companies bought technology. He sought to simplify cloud computing into component pieces and offer them on rent to users, individuals and companies.  A lot of companies including huge corporate kings like Oracle dismissed the idea, but the concept proved to be successful eventually. Amazon’s early customers were startups and the company built the business quietly and resiliently.

Cloud computing was not a natural goal for Amazon, which started off as an online retail company. But running its business with a lot of hiccups and cumbersome technology gave Bezos, Jassy and their team the confidence that they should come with a solution to solve problems that many other big and small companies have, and will have when they start and expand their business.

AWS is offered to subscribers as an inexpensive, yet effective solution for procuring large scale computing capacity quickly than building an actual physical server farm. By 2006, 150,000  developers had signed up to use AWS. It now commands 33 percent of all cloud computing,  with Microsoft  at 18 percent and Google, at 9 percent respectively .Notable companies that use AWS include  Apple, Adobe, BMW, Comcast, Capital One, Disney, Expedia, General Electric, Lonely Planet, McDonalds, NASA, Netflix, Nokia, Pinterest, Samsung, Spotify, Sony, Turner Broadcasting, Time Inc, Twitter, US Navy, Zillow among others.  In 2019, it was reported more than 80  percent of Germany’s listed DAX companies use AWS.

In 2016, 13 years later after he built AWS, Jassy was promoted as the CEO of Amazon Web Services, his salary in 2017 touching $36 million, with  the division making booming profits. As of November 2020, Jassy’s estimated net worth is $377 million. In 2020, for his work as CEO of AWS, Jassy earned a base compensation of $175,000, plus a restricted stock unit awards.

Andy Jassy wife,  Elana Rochelle Caplan

In  1997, Jassy married Elana Rochelle Caplan, a fashion designer for Eddie Bauer. Her father worked in the same law firm as Jassy’s father.

Andy Jassy – House

The couple has two children and live in their $3.5 million home in Seattle’s Capitol Hill District.. Amazon is now worth $1.6trillion. The manor house built in 1906 was bought by the Jassys in 2009 and has five bedrooms, six bathrooms  They also own a $6.7 million home, in the beachside community of Santa Monica.

Widely known to command respect,  Andrew Jassy is known to be a chilled-out, relaxed and low-profile boss. But he demands high work ethics and is known to induce lot of creative energy from people at the workplace.

Jassy believes in the principle of reinvention. He says, “You’ve got to be reinventing all the time. You’ve got to be maniacal, tenacious, and relentless all the time.  You have got to know what is working and what is not. He has stated the pandemic has shifted the focus even more to a cloud company.  Jassy cites the example of Netflix, which cannibalized its own business in the favor of streaming.