Amazon’s CEO Andy Jessy, joined Amazon in the very early days (1997), and he now has 94,729 shares, making him a top individual shareholder of the company. Those shares are worth around $9 million. However, over the years, Andy Jessy might have sold part of the shares he got over the years, and he has a $175,000 salary, which makes him a millionaire.
MBI
Jassy graduated from Harvard College, Massachusetts in 1990 and initially worked as a sportscaster at ABC Sports and Fox. However, he soon discovered that he lacked the patience to stick with the career long enough to make it to the big time.
Jassy then worked as a project manager for sports collectibles company MBI where he learned about general management and entrepreneurship. He later co-founded a start-up with a college friend and MBI colleague, but the venture was short-lived because, in Jassy’s words, “we knew that what we were building was not what we both wanted to do forever.”
Amazon
Jassy then earned an MBA from Harvard Business School (HBS) and sat his last exam on the first Friday of May 1997. The following Monday and three weeks before the company went public, he started at Amazon in its marketing team alongside several other HBS graduates.
Jassy had initially set his sights on a career at software company Intuit, but when Amazon recruiter Jennifer Cast found his resume in a pile at the HBS career office, she made contact.
For a few months, the new recruit managed competitive intelligence and customer retention. Jassy was later moved into the SWAT team whose primary objective was to find product categories Amazon – then a book retailer – could expand into.
Over the ensuing years, Jassy worked in customer relationship management, product management, and was also the general manager of Amazon’s music business.
He was then appointed to the Shadow Job for 18 months – a role that required him to shadow Jeff Bezos as he went about his day.
One of Jassy’s roles was to serve as the ears of the CEO in rooms where Bezos’s very presence could derail discussions.
In 2003, Bezos and Jassy envisioned a cloud computing platform that later became known as Amazon Web Services (AWS). In 2016, he was promoted from senior vice president to CEO of AWS.
Jassy becomes Amazon CEO
Bezos formally announced Jassy as his successor in February 2021 as part of Amazon’s fourth-quarter earnings report. Jassy became CEO on July 5 – the same day Bezos had founded the company in 1994.
For Bezos, Jassy was a natural replacement. He embodied Amazon’s corporate values to put customers first, move fast, and be frugal. Both men also share a competitive streak, mistrust conventional wisdom, and are hard workers.
Jassy also brings some unique qualities to the role, such as his unassuming nature and ability to connect with colleagues. He is also adept at asking questions that cut to the heart of a matter and can easily spot subordinate hyperbole.
Key takeaways:
- Andy Jassy is a business executive who currently serves as the CEO of Amazon and also on its board of directors. Having worked at Amazon for 25 years in an era where employees switch jobs frequently, Jassy’s loyalty to the eCommerce giant stands out.
- Jassy earned an MBA from Harvard Business School (HBS) and sat his last exam on the first Friday of May 1997. The following Monday and three weeks before the company went public, he started at Amazon in its marketing team.
- Bezos formally announced Jassy as his successor in February 2021 as part of Amazon’s fourth-quarter earnings report. Jassy embodies many of Amazon’s core values and while he shares some qualities with Bezos, he also brings some that are unique.
Connected to Amazon Business Model
