Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos stepped down on July 5, turning the helm over to cloud-computing boss Andy Jassy after serving as the company’s CEO for 27 years.
“We chose that date because it’s sentimental for me, the day Amazon was incorporated in 1994, exactly 27 years ago,” Bezos said Wednesday at Amazon’s annual shareholder meeting, which was held virtually.
Forbes estimates that his fortune rocketed $196 billion since 1998 when he first appeared on its list of richest Americans. Today he’s worth nearly $202 billion, the magazine says.
Amazon announced in February that Bezos would leave his post later this year. Bezos will transition to executive chairman of Amazon’s board and is expected to dedicate more time toward initiatives like the Bezos Earth Fund, his Blue Origin spaceship company, The Washington Post and the Amazon Day 1 Fund.
The company had kept its succession plans quiet, though onlookers speculated that either Jassy or Jeff Wilke, who retired from his post as head of Amazon’s worldwide consumer business last August, would be Bezos’ eventual successor.
Always fascinated by space travel, later this month he aims to fly into space on the first crewed flight made by his company Blue Origin.
A petition to not allow him back to Earth has gathered nearly 150,000 signatures.
