Amazon Web Services CEO Adam Selipsky is stepping down from the role, three years after returning to the company to lead the cloud giant, according to an internal memo from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy to employees Tuesday morning.
Selipsky will be succeeded by Matt Garman, the AWS senior vice president of sales and marketing, effective June 3.
The news comes as a surprise to the outside world, but Jassy’s memo described Selipsky’s departure as part of an informal plan that they agreed upon when he returned to Amazon in March 2021 from his prior role as Tableau CEO.
“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 wrote Tuesday.
Selipsky’s tenure as AWS CEO was defined by the latter half of the pandemic and the rise of generative artificial intelligence, which fueled demand for cloud services and put AWS in the unusual position of scrambling to catch up with rivals 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 wrote in his own memo to employees.
He added, “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 grown to a $100 billion annual revenue run rate, and continues to lead the cloud market with 31% market share, according to Synergy Research Group. The business accounted for more than 60% of Amazon’s companywide operating income in the first quarter.
Garman has worked at Amazon for nearly 18 years, most recently as senior vice president of AWS sales, marketing and global services.
Here are emails to employees from Jassy, Selipsky, and Garman, as published on Amazon’s website.
A little over three years ago when Jeff announced my new role, one of my first jobs was to identify who’d take over and lead AWS. It was important to me that we had somebody who understood AWS, valued our culture, would provide strong continuity, and could keep growing the business. We had strong leaders in AWS, several of whom could lead the overall business in the long-term, but who’d benefit from a few more years gaining experience and learning under a more seasoned CEO.
Adam Selipsky was one of the first VPs we hired in AWS back in 2005, and spent 11 years excellently leading AWS Sales, Marketing, and Support, before leaving to become the CEO of Tableau. I’ve always had a lot of respect for Adam, and we met several times to discuss the possibility of coming back to lead AWS. 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.
We were fortunate that Adam agreed to step in and lead AWS, and has deftly led the business, while also developing his leadership team. Adam is now going to move onto his next challenge (after taking a well-deserved respite), and Matt Garman will become CEO of AWS, effective June 3rd.
I’d like to thank Adam for everything he’s done to lead AWS over the past three years. He took over in the middle of the pandemic, which presented a wide array of leadership and business challenges. Under his direction, the team made the right long-term decision to help customers become more efficient in their spend, even if it meant less short-term revenue for AWS. Throughout, the team continued to invent and release new services at a rapid clip, including several impactful Generative AI services, such as Amazon Bedrock and Amazon Q. Adam leaves AWS in a strong position, having reached a $100 billion annual revenue run rate this past quarter, with YoY revenue accelerating again. And perhaps most importantly, AWS continues to lead on operational performance, security, reliability, and the overall breadth and depth of our services. I’m deeply appreciative of Adam’s leadership during this time, and for the entire team’s dedication to deliver for customers and the business.
As some of you may know, Matt started at Amazon as a MBA intern during the summer of 2005, and joined the company full-time in 2006 as one of the first AWS product managers. Initially working across all of AWS, Matt helped create our first service level agreements, define new features, and create new pricing plans. He then became our first product manager for EC2, and led EC2 product management in its early, formative years. During that time, he also led the team that defined, launched, and operated EBS. Matt eventually became the general manager of all AWS Compute services in 2016, which he did for about four years. In 2020, after having been deeply involved in our product organization for 14 years, I asked Matt to move to the demand generation side of AWS to lead WW Sales, Marketing, Support, and Professional Services.
Matt has an unusually strong set of skills and experiences for his new role. He’s very customer focused, a terrific product leader, inventive, a clever problem-solver, right a lot, has high standards and meaningful bias for action, and in the 18 years he’s been in AWS, he’s been one of the better learners I’ve encountered. Matt knows our customers and business as well as anybody in the world, and has senior leadership experience on both the product and demand generation sides. I’m excited to see Matt and his outstanding AWS leadership team continue to invent our future—it’s still such early days in AWS.
Thank you again to Adam for his leadership, and please join me in congratulating Matt.
Andy
Team,
Thank you Andy, I appreciate the kind words and your leadership during all these years together. I take this next step with truly mixed emotions; I have spent almost 15 combined years in AWS, and it has been a real privilege.
I am so grateful for all that I’ve learned about technology, leadership, organization, and culture at Amazon. Helping all of our customers and partners to build has been an amazing experience. Above all, I am grateful for my many friendships here, and for such talented colleagues who have taught me so much, while providing such good cheer.
Leading this amazing team and the AWS business is a big job, and I’m proud of all we’ve accomplished going from a start-up to where we are today. 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. 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.
Matt and the AWS leadership team are ready for this next big opportunity. I’m excited to see what they and you do next, because I know it will be impressive. The future is bright for AWS (and for Amazon). I wish you all the very best of luck on this adventure.
Onward always,
Adam
Thanks Andy and Adam. Adam, I want to personally thank you for everything you have done for the company, for our customers, and for me. I have learned a ton from you over the years, and I know that the AWS business would not be where it is today without your contributions and leadership.
Over the last 18 years I have been fortunate enough to get to work on many different aspects of the AWS business, but one constant has been the world class talent and the unwavering customer obsession of the people I have gotten to work with. I am more optimistic than I have ever been for the potential for innovation and growth ahead of us, and I look forward helping us move faster, invent more, and operate as one team to help our customers.
For me, AWS is much more than just a business. We are a team of missionaries working passionately to help make our customers’ lives and businesses better every day. It has been a privilege to work alongside all of you for the past 18 years, and I am humbled for the opportunity to continue to do so in this new broader role. I’m excited to get started!
There will naturally be some organizational adjustments that we will make as part of this transition, so look for details on those in the coming weeks. Also, I will be hosting a number of AWS Town Halls over the next month, and I look forward to connecting with more of you directly during those.
Thanks,
Matt
The Verge reported on the news earlier this morning.
