Explained: Who is Andy Jassy, the next CEO of e-commerce giant Amazon

New York, Feb 03: Amazon Web Services (AWS) chief Andy Jassy is all set to replace billionaire founder Jeff Bezos as Amazon's next chief executive officer (CEO). Jassy joined Amazon in 1997 and has a MBA from Harvard Business School.

"I took my last final exam at HBS, the first Friday of May in 1997 and I started Amazon next Monday," Jassy said in a Harvard Business School podcast in September. "No, I didn't know what my job was going to be, or what my title was going to be. It was super important to the Amazon people that we come that Monday."

According to reports, in 2006, Jassy founded Amazon's AWS, Amazon's cloud service platform used by millions of businesses across the world. The service competes with Microsoft Corp's Azure and Alphabet Inc's Google Cloud.

It can be seen that Jassy has occasionally spoken out on social issues, posting tweets about the need for police accountability after Breonna Taylor, a Black woman, was slain in her home by white policemen during a botched raid, and in favour of LGBTQ rights.

On Tuesday, Amazon reported its third consecutive record profit and quarterly sales above $100 billion for the first time and also announced that Jassy will replace Bezos.

However, Bezos will still have broad influence over Amazon. "Jeff is really not going anywhere," Amazon's Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said in a call with reporters. "It's more of a restructuring of who's doing what."

In 1995, Amazon was a pioneer of fast, free shipping that won over millions of shoppers who used the site to buy diapers, TVs and just about anything else.

Under Bezos, Amazon also launched the first e-reader that gained mass acceptance, and its Echo listening device made voice assistants a common sight in living rooms. As a child, Bezos was intrigued by computers and interested in building things, such as alarms he rigged in his parents' home.

During the pandemic, it can be seen that Amazon was one of the few retailers to benefit as shoppers stayed clear of malls and shopped from their phones.

Recently, Bezos sometimes stepped into the spotlight, showing up at movie premieres and Hollywood parties. In 2019, he announced he was divorcing Scott in a tweet, just before the National Enquirer published a cover story saying Bezos had an affair with a former TV host.

Scott received a stake in Amazon after the divorce worth nearly $40 billion at the time. She has pledged to give away half her fortune to charities. As Amazon has grown, so has scrutiny.

Amazon and other tech giants have enjoyed light-touch regulation and star status in Washington for decades, but calls for greater regulation are growing.

A report by the House Judiciary Committee in October called for possibly breaking up Amazon and others, making it harder for them to acquire companies and imposing new rules to safeguard competition. Bezos is one of the last founders of a big tech company to still be CEO.

Jassy, Bezos' replacement, is a longtime Amazon executive, having worked at the company since 1997. The cloud-computing business he runs powers video-streaming site Netflix and many other companies, and it has become Amazon's most profitable business.