Andrew R. Jassy (born January 13, 1968) is an American business executive who is the president and chief executive officer of

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

. Before being appointed by

Jeff Bezos Jeffrey Preston Bezos ( ;; and Robinson (2010), p. 7. ; born January 12, 1964) is an American businessman best known as the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon, the world's largest e-commerce and clou ...

and the Amazon board during the fourth quarter of 2020, Jassy had been the SVP and CEO of

Amazon Web Services Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Amazon that provides Software as a service, on-demand cloud computing computing platform, platforms and Application programming interface, APIs to individuals, companies, and gover ...

from 2003 to 2021.

Early life and education

Jassy is the son of Margery and Everett L. Jassy of Scarsdale, New York. Of Jewish Hungarian ancestry, his father was a senior partner in the

corporate law Corporate law (also known as company law or enterprise law) is the body of law governing the rights, relations, and conduct of persons, companies, organizations and businesses. The term refers to the legal practice of law relating to corpora ...

firm Dewey Ballantine in New York City, and chairman of the firm's management committee. Jassy grew up in Scarsdale, and attended Scarsdale High School, where he played varsity soccer and tennis. Jassy graduated '' cum laude'' from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...

in government, where he was advertising manager of ''

The Harvard Crimson ''The Harvard Crimson'' is the student newspaper at Harvard University, an Ivy League university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The newspaper was founded in 1873, and is run entirely by Harvard College undergraduate students. His ...

'', before earning an MBA from

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

. In 1989, he wrote in ''The Crimson'' that the newspaper should continue to publish advertisements from

Eastern Air Lines Eastern Air Lines (also colloquially known as Eastern) was a major airline in the United States that operated from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution, it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade ...

, despite an ongoing labor dispute there.

Career

Jassy worked for five years after graduation before entering his MBA program as a project manager for a

collectible A collectable (collectible or collector's item) is any object regarded as being of value or interest to a collector. Collectable items are not necessarily monetarily valuable or uncommon. There are numerous types of collectables and terms t ...

s company, MBI, and then he and an MBI colleague started a company and closed it down. Jassy joined Amazon as a marketing manager in 1997. In 2003, he and

came up with the idea to create the

cloud computing Cloud computing is "a paradigm for enabling network access to a scalable and elastic pool of shareable physical or virtual resources with self-service provisioning and administration on-demand," according to International Organization for ...

platform that became known as

, which launched in 2006. Jassy headed it and its team of 57 people. Andy Jassy in 2016

In 2016, Jassy was named Person of the Year by the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

''. A month later, Jassy was promoted from senior vice president to chief executive officer of Amazon Web Services (AWS). That year Jassy was paid $36.6 million. In 2017, he was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Jassy was a member of the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI) that was established in 2018 and issued its final report in March 2021. In January 2021, Bezos designated Jassy his official successor as CEO; with the transition occurring on July 5, 2021. As CEO of Amazon, Jassy received a ten year pay package totaling $212.7 million. The majority of the compensation package is in stock and vests over 10 years. He held more than 2.160 million common shares of Amazon.com and was estimated to have a net worth of almost $500 million as of January 2025. As of 2024, Jassy has been emphasizing the company's focus on artificial intelligence (AI). The company announced plans to spend more than $75 billion on capital expenditures in 2025, with most of that investment directed towards AWS and generative AI.

Personal life

In 1997, Jassy married Elana Rochelle Caplan, a fashion designer for Eddie Bauer and graduate of the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science, at a Loews Hotel in

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

. Their wedding was officiated by New York reform Rabbi James Brandt, a cousin of Elana. Both their fathers were senior partners in law firm Dewey Ballantine. Jassy and Caplan have two children. They live in the

Capitol Hill Capitol Hill is a neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., neighborhood in Washington, D.C., located in both the Northeast, Washington, D.C., Northeast and Southeast, Washington, D.C., Southeast quadrants. It is bounded by 14th Street SE & NE, F S ...

neighborhood of

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

in a 10,000-square-foot house bought in 2009 for $3.1 million. In October 2020, it was reported that Jassy had bought a $6.7 million 5,500-square-foot house in Santa Monica. He is chairman of Rainier Prep, a charter school in Seattle.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jassy, Andy 1968 births 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople Amazon (company) people 20th-century American Jews American technology chief executives Businesspeople from Seattle Harvard Business School alumni Living people Businesspeople from Scarsdale, New York Scarsdale High School alumni The Harvard Crimson people American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent 21st-century American Jews American chief executives of Fortune 500 companies Seattle Kraken owners