By Nneka Nwogwugwu
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced on Tuesday his retirement as the chief executive of the company.
Bezos said he will transit to the role of executive chair in the third quarter, handing over the CEO role to Andy Jassy, who heads Amazon Web Services.
In a letter to Amazon employees, Bezos said he would “stay engaged in important Amazon initiatives” but would pivot towards philanthropic initiatives, including his Day One Fund and Bezos Earth Fund, and other business ventures in space exploration and journalism.
“I’ve never had more energy, and this isn’t about retiring,” Bezos wrote.
“I’m super passionate about the impact I think these organizations can have.”
The 57 year old Bezos founded Amazon in his garage in 1994 and went on to grow it into a colossus that dominates online retail, with operations in streaming music and television, groceries, cloud computing, robotics, artificial intelligence and more.