Amazon Web Services CEO Adam Selipsky is resigning from his position, three years after he rejoined the company to helm the cloud behemoth, revealed in an internal memo from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy to employees on Tuesday morning.
Selipsky will be succeeded by Matt Garman, the AWS senior vice president of sales and marketing, starting June 3.
This development came as a shock externally, however, Jassy’s memo indicated Selipsky’s departure was under an informal agreement made when he rejoined Amazon in March 2021 from his previous role as CEO of Tableau.
“In those conversations, we agreed that if he accepted the role, he’d likely do it for a few years, and that one of the things he’d focus on during that time was helping prepare the next generation of leadership,” Jassy elaborated on Tuesday.
Selipsky’s era as AWS CEO was marked by the second half of the pandemic and the emergence of generative artificial intelligence, driving demand for cloud services and positioning AWS in a race to catch up with competitors such as Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.
“In the back of my head I thought there might be another chapter down the road at some point, but I never wanted to distract myself from what we are all working so hard to achieve,” Selipsky noted in his memo to employees.
He continued, “Given the state of the business and the leadership team, now is an appropriate moment for me to make this transition, and to take the opportunity to spend more time with family for a while, recharge a bit, and create some mental free space to reflect and consider the possibilities.”
AWS has escalated to a $100 billion annual revenue rate, maintaining its lead in the cloud market with a 31% market share, as per Synergy Research Group. The business generated more than 60% of Amazon’s overall operating income in the first quarter.
Garman has been with Amazon for close to 18 years, most recently as the senior vice president of AWS’s sales, marketing, and global services.
Emails to employees from Jassy, Selipsky, and Garman are published on Amazon’s website.
The Verge reported on this news earlier this morning.
