Founder, Chairman, CEO and President of Amazon Jeff Bezos gives a thumbs up as he speaks during an event about Blue Origin’s space exploration plans in Washington, U.S., May 9, 2019.
Clodagh Kilcoyne | Reuters
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos will step down on July 5, turning the helm over to cloud-computing boss Andy Jassy.
“We chose that date because it’s sentimental for me, the day Amazon was incorporated in 1994, exactly 27 years ago,” Bezos said Wednesday at Amazon’s annual shareholder meeting, which was held virtually.
Amazon announced in February that Bezos would leave his post later this year. Bezos will transition to executive chairman of Amazon’s board and is expected to dedicate more time toward initiatives like the Bezos Earth Fund, his Blue Origin spaceship company, The Washington Post and the Amazon Day 1 Fund.
The company had kept its succession plans quiet, though onlookers speculated that either Jassy or Jeff Wilke, who retired from his post as head of Amazon’s worldwide consumer business last August, would be Bezos’ eventual successor.
