Andy Jassy

Andy Jassy
Born	Andrew R. Jassy 13 1, 1968
Birthplace	Scarsdale, New York, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Business executive
Title	President and CEO of Amazon
Known for	Amazon Web Services, Amazon Music
Education	Harvard University (BA, MBA)
Children	2

Andrew R. Jassy (born January 13, 1968) is an American business executive who has served as the president and chief executive officer of Amazon since July 2021, succeeding founder Jeff Bezos, who transitioned to the role of executive chairman. Before assuming Amazon's top leadership position, Jassy spent nearly two decades building and leading Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company's cloud computing division, which he oversaw from its inception in 2003 through its growth into one of the most profitable segments of Amazon's business. A Harvard-educated executive who joined Amazon in 1997 shortly after completing his MBA, Jassy rose through the organization as one of Jeff Bezos's closest lieutenants, eventually becoming one of the most consequential figures in the modern technology industry. As CEO, he has navigated Amazon through periods of significant restructuring, workforce reductions, and a major strategic pivot toward artificial intelligence and generative AI.

Early Life

Andrew R. Jassy was born on January 13, 1968, and grew up in Scarsdale, New York, an affluent suburb in Westchester County north of New York City. He is Jewish.

Jassy attended Scarsdale High School, where he was a member of the class of 1986. Growing up in the New York metropolitan area, he developed interests that would later shape his career trajectory. Accounts of his early years describe a competitive and intellectually curious individual.

Education

Jassy attended Harvard University, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree. While an undergraduate at Harvard, he was involved in campus life; records from The Harvard Crimson document his participation in campus activities during the late 1980s.

After completing his undergraduate studies, Jassy went on to earn his Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Harvard Business School. His time at Harvard Business School provided him with the foundational business acumen and network that would prove instrumental in his career at Amazon. He completed his MBA in 1997 and joined Amazon that same year, just three years after the company's founding.

Career

Early Years at Amazon

Jassy joined Amazon in 1997, shortly after completing his MBA at Harvard Business School. At the time, Amazon was still primarily an online bookseller and had yet to expand into the vast array of businesses it would come to encompass. During his early years at the company, Jassy worked closely with founder Jeff Bezos, serving as his technical advisor — a role that functioned as a chief of staff position and was considered one of the most influential positions within Amazon's organizational structure. This close working relationship with Bezos gave Jassy deep insight into the founder's strategic thinking and decision-making processes, and it positioned him as one of the most trusted executives within the company.

During this formative period, Jassy gained experience across multiple facets of Amazon's operations. His work as Bezos's shadow allowed him to participate in high-level discussions about the company's direction and to develop a comprehensive understanding of Amazon's business model and corporate culture.

Founding and Leading Amazon Web Services

In 2003, Jassy played a central role in the conceptualization and development of what would become Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud computing platform that would fundamentally reshape the technology industry. The idea for AWS emerged from internal discussions about Amazon's core competencies, particularly the company's expertise in running reliable, scalable infrastructure and technology services. Jassy recognized an opportunity to offer these capabilities as services to external developers and businesses.

Under Jassy's leadership, AWS launched its first major services, including Simple Storage Service (S3) and Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), which provided on-demand computing resources and storage over the internet. These services represented a paradigm shift in how companies procured and managed computing infrastructure, moving away from costly on-premises data centers toward a pay-as-you-go cloud model.

Jassy served as Senior Vice President and CEO of AWS from its inception, and under his direction the division grew into the dominant player in the global cloud computing market. By the mid-2010s, AWS had become one of Amazon's most profitable business segments, often generating the majority of the parent company's operating income despite representing a smaller share of total revenue. The platform expanded to include hundreds of services spanning computing, storage, databases, machine learning, analytics, and more, serving millions of customers including startups, enterprises, and government agencies.

A 2015 Fortune profile described AWS under Jassy's leadership as having established a commanding position in cloud computing, well ahead of competitors including Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. The Financial Times also covered Jassy's role in establishing AWS as a central pillar of Amazon's business strategy.

Jassy's tenure leading AWS was characterized by aggressive expansion, persistent price reductions to attract customers, and a relentless focus on building new services. His leadership style was noted for its alignment with Amazon's broader corporate principles, including the company's emphasis on customer obsession and long-term thinking.

CEO of Amazon

On February 2, 2021, Amazon announced that Jassy would succeed Jeff Bezos as president and CEO of the company. The transition took effect on July 5, 2021. Bezos, who had led Amazon since its founding in 1994, moved into the role of executive chairman. The transition represented one of the most significant leadership changes in the technology industry, as Jassy took the helm of one of the world's most valuable and complex companies.

The Wall Street Journal reported extensively on Jassy's preparation for the role, describing him as having been "primed" for the position through decades of close collaboration with Bezos and his success in building AWS into a dominant business.

Organizational Restructuring and Layoffs

As CEO, Jassy undertook significant organizational restructuring efforts. In the years following his appointment, Amazon conducted multiple rounds of layoffs affecting thousands of corporate employees. In early 2026, Business Insider reported that Amazon announced the elimination of approximately 16,000 positions in what was described as the second major layoff round in three months, as Jassy sought to reduce bureaucracy and implement what the outlet characterized as a "cultural reset." The Times of India reported on plans to cut approximately 14,000 corporate positions, with Jassy stating that the reductions were "not about cost."

These restructuring efforts reflected Jassy's stated goal of making Amazon a leaner, more agile organization. He emphasized the importance of reducing layers of management and empowering teams to move faster, consistent with what he described as a return to Amazon's startup-like culture.

Artificial Intelligence Strategy

A defining feature of Jassy's tenure as CEO has been his strategic emphasis on artificial intelligence, particularly generative AI. In June 2025, Jassy shared a message with Amazon employees outlining his thoughts on generative AI and its significance for the company's future.

In February 2026, the Financial Times reported that Jassy was overseeing a $200 billion AI spending initiative aimed at reviving AWS's competitive position in the AI era. The report noted that the investment followed concerns that Amazon had missed the early stages of the AI boom, as competitors Microsoft and Google posed increasing challenges to AWS's cloud computing business.

At the January 2026 World Economic Forum in Davos, Jassy addressed questions about whether AI companies' valuations were being inflated. Speaking to CNBC's Becky Quick, Jassy offered a measured response, hedging on whether an AI bubble existed.

Tariff and Trade Policy Commentary

In January 2026, while attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Jassy commented publicly on the impact of tariffs imposed by the administration of President Donald Trump. He told CNBC that the tariffs had started to "creep" into the prices of some items sold on Amazon's platform, noting that sellers had initially tried to absorb the increased costs but were beginning to pass them along to consumers. Axios also reported on Jassy's remarks, noting his statement that prices were increasing as a result of the tariffs.

Personal Life

Jassy married Elana Caplan in 1997. The couple's wedding was reported in The New York Times wedding announcements section. Jassy and his wife have two children.

Jassy is based in Seattle, Washington, where Amazon is headquartered. He is known to be a fan of the New York Knicks and has spoken publicly about his interest in professional sports. He is Jewish.

Recognition

Following his appointment as CEO of Amazon in 2021, Jassy received extensive media coverage and industry recognition for his role in building AWS into a dominant force in cloud computing. Profiles in The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, the Financial Times, and Business Insider have examined his career trajectory and leadership approach.

BBN Times described Jassy as one of the most influential executives in modern technology, citing his role as "AWS Pioneer" and his contributions to the development of the cloud computing industry.

His Harvard Business School education has also been a point of note in his public profile, and he has participated in podcasts and discussions hosted by the school's Forum for Growth and Innovation.

As the leader of one of the world's largest companies by market capitalization and workforce, Jassy's public statements and strategic decisions receive significant attention from investors, policymakers, and the technology press. His remarks at forums such as the World Economic Forum in Davos have been reported by major international news outlets.

Legacy

Jassy's most significant contribution to the technology industry is the creation and development of Amazon Web Services. AWS effectively created the modern cloud computing industry and established the infrastructure-as-a-service model that has since been adopted by competitors worldwide. Before AWS, most companies maintained their own physical server infrastructure; the cloud computing model that Jassy championed fundamentally changed how businesses of all sizes access and use computing resources.

The scale of this impact is reflected in AWS's market position: the service became the backbone for a substantial portion of the internet's infrastructure, hosting everything from startup applications to enterprise workloads to government systems. The revenue and profit generated by AWS also played a central role in Amazon's broader financial trajectory, providing the operating income that helped fund the company's expansion into new markets and businesses.

As CEO of Amazon, Jassy inherited leadership of a company with over a million employees operating across e-commerce, cloud computing, digital advertising, streaming media, consumer electronics, logistics, and other sectors. His tenure has been defined by efforts to streamline operations, reduce overhead, and position the company for leadership in the artificial intelligence era through substantial capital investment.

The transition from Jeff Bezos to Jassy represented the first CEO succession in Amazon's history and has been closely watched as a test case for how founder-led technology companies navigate leadership transitions. Jassy's background as the builder of AWS — rather than as a finance or operations executive — reflected the centrality of technology and cloud computing to Amazon's identity and strategic direction.

References

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