Almost immediately after Jeff Bezos handed Amazon to Andy Jassy in July 2021, the trouble began. The company had been soaring post-pandemic, bolstered by overwhelming interest in e-commerce and the cloud, but a return to in-person life and a broad tech drawback changed it all fast. As Jassy took over, Amazon's share price plunged, customers started buying less, easy corporate deals became hard, and hard deals fell apart. While Bezos lived the good life, his anointed CEO dealt with the fallout. Next month, Jassy will reach the two-year point in his bumpy run as CEO. He's helped bring some stability to the company, but his record's been marked by approximately 27,000 layoffs, a rush to streamline operations, slowing cloud growth, and questions about the company's focus.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced on Tuesday that he will step down as CEO later this year and become executive chairman of the company's board. He described the move in a letter to employees as an opportunity for him to focus on "new products and early initiatives" and his various pet projects like his space-flight company Blue Origin and the Washington Post. In Bezo's stead, longtime Amazon executive Andy Jassy will become the new CEO. So, who exactly is that guy? Jassy joined Amazon in 1997, three years after its founding.