Who is Andy Jassy? How Andy Jassy Raced to the Top to Become CEO of Amazon

NEW DELHI: Amazon's new CEO Andy Jassy is known for his perseverance, ability to sit through seemingly never-ending meetings and frugality despite his high profile and riches.

But very few knows that Jassy was nearly fired during layoffs in Amazon's marketing department. However, the former CEO Bezos saved him, calling him "one of our most high potential people", according to Amazon Unbound, a book by Bloomberg journalist Brad Stone.

Jassy totally embodied Amazon values like frugality and humility. He usually wore inexpensive sport coats and loudly trumpeted his enthusiasm for diversions like New York sports teams, buffalo wings and the Dave Matthews Band, the book says.

Jassy, 53, was promoted to CEO of Amazon Web Services- its software cloud computing arm and secret weapon for many years- in 2016. For years AWS' high margins subsidised costs on ecommerce, entertainment and many other consumer-facing discount-led businesses. AWS was a closely held secret at Amazon, and its numbers weren't revealed separately until 2015. Even when it was, Jassy was initially against it, feeling it would take away a closely-guarded advantage and let competitors know how profitable a business it really is.

And while AWS is still a market leader, Netflix, Microsoft Azure, Oracle and many others have deployed billions into cloud software and eaten into AWS' market share, somewhat validating Jassy's fear.

Meanhwile, Amazon.com Inc plans to award incoming Chief Executive Andy Jassy more than $200 million in extra stock, which will pay out over 10 years, the company said in a regulatory filing on Friday.

Amazon will record the grant of 61,000 shares on July 5, the filing said. That`s the date Jassy succeeds Jeff Bezos in the online retailer`s first CEO transition since its founding in 1994. As of Friday`s close, those shares are worth about $214 million.

Notably, Jassy`s base salary has been $175,000, filings show. On top of that, he has $45.3 million in previously awarded stock that is vesting this year and had $41.5 million vest in 2020.

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