My1sttoday: Jeff Bezos will step down as Amazon CEO on July 5th, same date the company was incorporated in 1994.
In his last shareholder meeting as Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos announced that he would officially step down from the role on July 5.
“We chose that date because it’s sentimental for me, the day Amazon was incorporated in 1994, exactly 27 years ago,” Bezos said on Wednesday.
Bezos officially announced in February that he would leave his CEO post in the third quarter.
Andy Jassy will be taking over the position, the head of Amazon’s cloud-computing division, Amazon Web Services. Jassy has been at the company for 24 years.
Jassy “is going to be an outstanding leader, and he has my full confidence,” Bezos said.
“He has the highest of high standards, and I guarantee that Andy will never let the universe make us typical,” Bezos added. “He has the energy needed to keep alive in us what has made us special.”
Bezos is not leaving Amazon altogether — he’ll become the executive chair of the company.
“I’m very excited to move into the chair role, where I will focus my energies and attention on new products and early initiatives,” Bezos said.