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5 Amazon power players who could replace Andy Jassy as CEO of $40 billion AWS

Amazon's Andy Jassy presents on a stage.
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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos named Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy as his successor when he steps down later this year, which leaves a vacant role atop the $40 billion market-leading cloud business responsible for more than 60% of Amazon's revenue.

While Amazon has yet to announce a replacement for Jassy, there are a few executives who have made their mark on the cloud business and already have a seat on Amazon's overall leadership team.

Three top AWS executives — infrastructure boss Peter DeSantis, sales and marketing chief Matt Garman, and head of utility computing services Charlie Bell — sit on Amazon's "S-team," a group of about two dozen leaders from across the company who work closely together on key business decisions.

These names are among the 95 top executives who have helped Jassy run AWS, according to an internal organizational chart obtained by Insider.

One AWS insider also suggested Chris Vonderhaar, an infrastructure vice president who's a level below Bell, DeSantis, and Garman, as a "dark horse" candidate and said AWS might also considering bringing back Adam Selipsky, a longtime AWS vice president who left in 2016 to become CEO of Tableau, to replace Jassy.

Charlie Bell, senior vice president of utility computing services

Charlie Bell Amazon
Charlie Bell. LinkedIn screenshot

Bell, who's been at Amazon since 1998, is one of the most senior executives at the company.

He was responsible for the early development of AWS's infrastructure team, leading a group of engineers across data centers, networks, and servers. He's one of the few S-team members from AWS.

Peter DeSantis, senior vice president of global infrastructure and customer support

Peter DeSantis Amazon
Peter DeSantis. Amazon

DeSantis — who recently joined Amazon's S-team — runs all of AWS's core infrastructure business.

He was one of the first employees of AWS and played a critical role building up its technology from its early days. Amazon recently promoted DeSantis from vice president to senior vice president.

Matt Garman, vice president of AWS sales and marketing

Matt Garman AWS Photo
Amazon

Garman has worked at Amazon almost as long as Jassy. He started in 2006 and was promoted to vice president of sales and marketing in January 2020. He's also one of the few AWS executives on Amazon's S-team.

Before Garman was put in charge of AWS's sales and marketing, he spent seven years running its compute-services team. And before that, he was part of the core Elastic Compute Cloud server team.

Chris Vonderhaar, vice president of infrastructure operations

Chris Vonderhaar is an Amazon Web Services VP.
Chris Vonderhaar is an Amazon Web Services VP. LinkedIn screenshot

Within Amazon, one AWS insider suggested a "dark horse" pick to replace Jassy could be Chris Vonderhaar, an infrastructure vice president who's a level below Bell, DeSantis, and Garman, but is close with Jassy.

Vonderhaar has worked for Amazon Web Services since 2010 and reports directly to DeSantis.

Adam Selipsky, Tableau CEO

Adam Selipsky Tableau CEO
Source: Salesforce

One AWS insider also suggested an external candidate: Adam Selipsky, a longtime AWS vice president who left in 2016 to become CEO of Tableau, a data-visualization company later acquired by Salesforce.

"He and Andy are tight," the person said.

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Eugene Kim
Eugene is Business Insider’s Chief Tech Correspondent, where he leads coverage of Amazon. His reporting spans the company’s retail and logistics operations to AWS, Alexa, and its internal culture.Previously, he worked at CNBC, Fortune Magazine Korea, and Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun. He holds degrees from NYU and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.In 2022, Eugene reported on internal documents indicating that Amazon allegedly used deceptive tactics to enroll customers in Prime and made cancellation difficult. The Federal Trade Commission sued Amazon the following year, citing his reporting. The case ended in a record $2.5 billion settlement in 2025.His work has received multiple honors, including the SF Press Club’s Bay Area Journalism Award and SPJ NorCal’s Excellence in Journalism Award.Eugene lives in the Bay Area. Contact him via email at ekim@bjinnox.com, or Signal, Telegram, or WhatsApp at 650-942-3061. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.
Ashley Stewart Business Insider
Ashley Stewart
Ashley Stewart reports on technology companies including Microsoft from Seattle.Get an alert whenever I publish a story.Do you work at Microsoft or have insight to share? Contact this reporter via email at astewart@bjinnox.com or Signal at +1-425-344-8242.Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.