How did new Amazon CEO Andy Jassy get his start? Jeff Bezos’ ‘shadow adviser’ grew Amazon Web Services into a US$40 billion business, now he’s overseeing one of the world’s most valuable companies
- Having spent 15 years growing Amazon’s cloud computing unit, Jassy was also considered as a successor at Microsoft and Uber
- He owns a share of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken, has a US$7 million home in California, and is outspoken about LGBT and other social issues on Twitter
On July 5, Andy Jassy became only the second CEO in Amazon’s history.
Known for his obsession with the customer experience and his high standards for those who work under him, Jassy seems like the natural choice to take over for the famously hard-charging Bezos.
With Jassy taking the helm, here’s a look at how he got his start and earned the top job at Amazon.
Jassy grew up outside New York City and went to Harvard
Jassy was raised in Scarsdale, New York, a ritzy enclave about 30km (20 miles) north of New York City. His father, Everett, is a lawyer who was a partner at Manhattan law firm Dewey Ballantine. His mother, Margery, worked as a trustee at youth theatre programme TheaterWorksUSA, according to The New York Times.
Jassy attended Harvard University for undergrad, then went on to get his MBA from Harvard as well. In between, he worked as a project manager at collectibles company MBI, according to the Financial Times.
He joined Amazon in 1997 as a marketing manager
Jassy came on board at Amazon the same year it went public and quickly stood out as a promising hire: Rick Dalzell, the company’s chief information officer at the time, told Fortune that Jassy had a competitive streak and a photographic memory that set him apart, despite his lack of engineering chops.
