Jeff Bezos will step down as Amazon CEO in the third quarter. Andy Jassy, who currently serves as CEO of AWS, will replace him.
“Amazon is what it is because of invention. We do crazy things together and then make them normal. We pioneered customer reviews, 1-Click, personalized recommendations, Prime’s insanely-fast shipping, Just Walk Out shopping, the Climate Pledge, Kindle, Alexa, marketplace, infrastructure cloud computing, Career Choice, and much more,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO. “If you do it right, a few years after a surprising invention, the new thing has become normal. People yawn. That yawn is the greatest compliment an inventor can receive. When you look at our financial results, what you’re actually seeing are the long-run cumulative results of invention. Right now I see Amazon at its most inventive ever, making it an optimal time for this transition.”
Jeffrey Preston Bezos was born as Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen on January 12, 1964, in Albuquerque, New Mexico to Jacklyn (née Gise) and Ted Jorgensen. At the time of his birth, his mother was only 17 years old and was a high school student while his father was a bike shop owner. In 1968, the couple got separated and his mother married Cuban immigrant Miguel “Mike” Bezos. Mike adopted four-year-old Jorgensen and the surname was then changed to Bezos.