Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to step down

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced Tuesday that he intends to step down, and instead serve as the Executive Chair of the Amazon Board. In a letter addressed to Amazon employees, he wrote that Andy Jassy will take over in his former role.

“As Exec Chair I will stay engaged in important Amazon initiatives but also have the time and energy I need to focus on the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and my other passions,” wrote the soon-to-be-former CEO. “I’ve never had more energy, and this isn’t about retiring.”

According to the world’s second richest person, his “transition” in roles will begin in the third quarter of 2021.

“In the Exec Chair role, I intend to focus my energies and attention on new products and early initiatives,” he added.

Andy Jassy, who currently heads Amazon Web Services, has previously argued for selling facial recognition technology to foreign governments and defended the sale of Amazon’s facial recognition tech, dubbed Rekognition, to police.

“We’ve had the facial recognition technology out for use for over two-and-a-half years now, and in those two-and-a-half years, we’ve never had any reported misuse of law enforcement using the facial recognition technology,” he told Frontline in September of 2019.

The last time time Bezos shocked the internet with a long blog post was back in February of 2019, however, then the topic was less about looking forward to new products. Instead, titled “No thank you, Mr. Pecker,” that missive involved dick pics and an alleged blackmail attempt.

Current head of Amazon Web Services Andy Jassy will be taking over, though Jeff Bezos will still reign as the Executive Chair of the Amazon Board.

Perhaps he got a taste for dramatically dropping a blog post on the world back then.

Credit: mashable.com