Selipsky has spent almost the past five years serving as chief executive of the cloud data company Tableau, a period in which the company’s value quadrupled before it was acquired by Salesforce for $ 15.7 billion in 2019.
Prior to that, he held several senior positions at AWS. Selipsky was hired in 2005 as one of the company’s first vice presidents after it started, just two years earlier, and directed sales, marketing and support on AWS for 11 years, according to a letter Jassy sent to AWS employees on Tuesday. -market.
Selipsky is not, however, among the various in-house executives that analysts have predicted could get the top job, including Matt Garman, chief sales and marketing executive at AWS.
“Adam brings strong judgment, customer obsession, team building, demand generation and CEO experience to an already very strong AWS leadership team,” said Jassy in the letter. “And, having played a senior role at AWS for 11 years, he knows our culture and business well.”
Selipsky will return to Amazon on May 17 and spend several weeks making the transition before officially taking over as CEO in the third quarter, according to Jassy’s letter.
He has great responsibilities: Jassy oversaw the rapid growth of AWS for nearly two decades in a business of more than $ 50 billion that contributes more than half of Amazon’s total revenue and provides the backbone for much of the Internet.
“It’s easy to forget that AWS is still in the early stages of what is possible,” said Jassy. “We have a lot more to invent for customers and we have a leadership team and a group of very strong builders to make this happen. I am excited about what is to come.”
Brian Klingbeil, director of strategy for the hybrid IT provider and AWS partner Enoso, called Selipsky’s hiring “a smart move” by Amazon.
“It will be important to look at Selipsky’s strategic moves to keep pace with AWS with Azure and even the upward momentum of Google Cloud,” said Klingbeil.