Jeff Bezos will be replaced by who? Meet Andy Jassy, Amazon’s new millionaire CEO who took a punt investing in new NHL team Seattle Kraken
The New Yorker was born on January 13, 1968, and grew up in Scarsdale. Jassy was an Ivy League student, graduating with honours from Harvard University, before joining collectibles company MBI as a project manager.
After five years in the workforce he went back to school, later gaining an MBA at Harvard Business School, and was also involved with his alma mater’s school publication, The Harvard Crimson, where he served as its advertising manager. After graduating a second time his future course was set when he joined Amazon in 1997.
And outside work? In 2018, Jassy took a bet by investing in future NHL competitors Seattle Kraken – a newly founded team who will enter the 2021-22 league – and today also serves as charter school chairman of the city’s Rainier Prep.
Here are some of the most important things you might want to know about the so-called “Jeff Bezos protégé”.
He’s a close friend of Bezos
Many wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Jassy became a close friend of Bezos after all the years he’s already spent with Amazon. In the early days, Jassy followed Bezos from board meetings to phone calls, and was seen as the “brain double” for Bezos who challenged the CEO’s thinking, according to Ann Hiatt, who was Bezos’ executive assistant from 2002 to 2005.
In his farewell letter, Bezos commended Jassy, saying: “In the exec chair role, I intend to focus my energies and attention on new products and early initiatives. Andy is well known inside the company and has been at Amazon almost as long as I have. He will be an outstanding leader, and he has my full confidence.”
He’s part of a happy family
Jassy married Elana Rochelle Caplan, a fashion designer for Eddie Bauer, in 1997. Their wedding, which took place at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, was officiated by Caplan’s cousin, New York rabbi James Brandt.
They now live in Seattle in the Capitol Hill neighbourhood, where they enjoy a spacious 10,000 sq ft house, which they bought for US$3.1 million in 2009. The family also has a second home in California, a 5,500 sq ft house in Santa Monica, which Jassy reportedly paid US$6.7 million for last year. The Cape Cod-style house has four bedrooms and five baths, which seems like the perfect pied-à-terre for the couple and their two grown children, aged 17 and 20.
He’s took Amazon to new places
Jassy was one of several Harvard MBA graduates Amazon welcomed in 1997, with his earliest roles including marketing manager, but he clearly shone the brightest among the recruits. Jassy was soon given the opportunity to brainstorm new business ideas and founded Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2006, with a team of 57 people through an off-site meeting. But it was only in 2016 that he became CEO of AWS, leaving his senior vice-president post.
He’s the highest-paid executive
The millionaire is actually the highest-paid executive in Amazon, not Bezos. He was reported to have amassed US$19 million in 2018 alone, marking the importance of his AWS division in both the present and future of the company. His base compensation in 2020 was US $175,000, with an addition of 4,023 Amazon shares as a restricted stock unit award. As of July 26 last year, those shares were worth more than US$12 million, with vesting starting in 2023.
He’s an outspoken advocate
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- Known as ‘Jeff Bezos’ protégé’, Amazon’s incoming CEO Andy Jassy graduated from Harvard University and is married to Eddie Bauer designer Elana Rochelle Caplan
- As well as founding Amazon Web Services, he has voiced his support of the Black Lives Matter movement on Twitter, and has also spoken up for LGBT workers