8 lesser-known facts about Andy Jassy, the man to take over Jeff Bezos as Amazon CEO

Today, the 57-year-old billionaire Jeff Bezos will be stepping down as CEO of Amazon. The world’s second-richest man will hand over the reins of Amazon to Andy Jassy, who has beena part of Amazon since 1977.

Andy Jassy is known for his determination, ability to sit through seemingly never-ending meetings, and management. An interesting fact about Jassy is that he was about to be fired from thecompany during layoffs but was saved from that by Bezos and now, he will lead the $1.7 trillion company into the future.

Here are some more interesting and lesser-known facts about Andy Jassy- Amazon’s new boss.

• Jassy is one of Amazon’s most senior and early employees. He began working at Amazon immediately after graduating from Harvard Business School.

Jassy recalls taking his last MBA exam on the first Friday of May 1997 and joining Amazon by the first Monday of the month itself.

• Jassy joined Amazon when it was still in its infancy and then he did not think it would grow to be the world’s one of the largest conglomerates. He had joined the company just topursue his entrepreneurial dreams and adventure.
• In 2003, Jassy left his marketing position to become Bezos’s technical assistant. He served as a so-called ‘shadow’ adviser of Bezos.

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• Jassy kept a low profile over the years but has joined more large Amazon events than Jeff Bezos. For example, Jassy was the main keynote speaker at Amazon's AWS Re: Invent conferenceevery year, whereas Bezos chose to deliver his yearly speech in a letter.
• Jassy worked as an advertising manager for The Harvard Crimson, the school's daily newspaper, during his college years. He did write one editorial for the newspaper, on "politicallycorrect" advertisements.
• Andy Jassy is a sports freak, just like his father. He has built himself a full-fledged sports bar in his basement which he refers to as the ‘Helmet Head’.

The basement sports bar has seven TVs to provide the best viewing experience and is an attempt to mimic the ambiance of watching games at local Seattle pubs such as Sluggers in the stadiumdistrict.

• Jassy was offered to be Microsoft CEO when Steve Ballmer was stepping down. There was also speculation of Jassy taking over as Uber CEO as Travis Kalanick stepped down in 2017.
• The new Amazon CEO, Andy Jassy has always been outspoken about social causes. He has always been witnessed speaking against police killings of Black Americans and support court rulingsillegalizing discriminating against members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Jassy has earlier spoken out against former President Donald Trump's contempt for Amazon and helmed AWS during the company's decision to ban Parler, a far-right social-media app.