Who Is Andy Jassy, The Soon-To-Be CEO Of Amazon?

When Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN released its fourth-quarter earnings on Tuesday, it had another big announcement: Jeff Bezos would be stepping down as CEO, moving to the role of executive chair in the third quarter of 2021.

His replacement is Andy Jassy, current CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS), an on-demand cloud computing subsidiary of Amazon.

Among the questions everyone is asking: Who exactly is Andy Jassy?

What To Know: Jassy, a native of New York, is not new to Amazon. When he began his career with the company in 1997, one of his roles was marketing manager. He founded AWS in 2003, and in 2016, was promoted from senior vice president to CEO.

Prior to joining Amazon in 1997, Jassy attended Harvard College, graduating with honors. Jassy spent five years working for MBI, a consumer products company, as a project manager before returning to Harvard to attend business school, earning an MBA. He took his final exam on a Friday in May 1997, then started work at Amazon the following Monday, according to a podcast obtained by Reuters.

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While not as wealthy as his billionaire predecessor, the 53-year-old Jassy’s estimated worth is $377 million.

He owns two homes with his wife, Elana Caplan, a fashion designer with Eddie Bauer and with whom he has two children. Their primary residence is in a $3.1-million house in the Capitol Hill area of Seattle, close to the Amazon headquarters.

What's Next: With Jassy's background as the founder and CEO of AWS, it signals Amazon’s shift to focusing on cloud computing. In Amazon’s earnings report, AWS showed to be the driving force for Amazon’s overall profit with 52% of the company's revenue coming from AWS.

"Andy is well known inside the company and has been at Amazon almost as long as I have," Bezos said in a letter to employees. "He will be an outstanding leader, and he has my full confidence."

Amazon's stock trades around $3,353.64 at publication time.