Tech giant Amazon has announced that Adam Selipsky is stepping down as CEO of cloud computing unit Amazon Web Services (AWS) after three years in the role.
In a statement, the company says Selipsky will be replaced by Matt Garman, a senior vice-president (VP) who has overseen sales and marketing at AWS, effective 3 June.
“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 CEO of Tableau,” says Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon.
“I’ve always had a lot of respect for Adam, and we met several times to discuss the possibility of him 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 3 June.”
Jassy notes Selipsky took over the role in the middle of the pandemic, which presented an 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, he says.
“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 [year-on-year] 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.”
According to Jassy, Garman started at Amazon as an MBA intern during the summer of 2005, and joined the company full-time in 2006 as one of the first AWS product managers.
He points out that initially working across all of AWS, Garman helped create the firm’s 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. 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 organisation for 14 years, I asked Matt to move to the demand generation side of AWS to lead worldwide sales, marketing, support and professional services.”
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