Mike Blake/Reuters
- Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon Web Services, a branch of Amazon, will replace Jeff Bezos as CEO.
- Jassy has previously spoken out about the importance of diversity in tech.
- The majority of Amazon managers are white men, and employees are calling for more inclusion.
- Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.
On Tuesday, Amazon announced that CEO Jeff Bezos would be stepping down from his post to become the company’s executive chair. Replacing him as CEO is Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon Web Services, a branch of the e-commerce company.
Jassy will have a number of tasks ahead of him: expanding the tech giant’s cloud and web services, maintaining its place as the world’s most important retail giant, and leading the company’s efforts in the healthcare space. But he’ll also face pressure on another, more personal front: the company’s diversity and inclusion efforts.
Amazon did not immediately respond to request for comment on diversity at the company.
In the wake of the killing of George Floyd, companies have been under increasing pressure from customers, employees, and investors to champion racial equity as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The incoming CEO knows this.
“It’s really important,” Jassy said at a June 2020 event, speaking about diversity. “Frankly, as a technology industry, I think we can be much better. It’s, in my opinion, still way too homogenous.”
That's true within tech, and Amazon is no exception.
The most recent company diversity data, from 2019, shows that the overwhelming majority of company managers are male (about 73%). And most are white (59%). Only 8% of Amazon's managers are Black.
"We have to make a better effort than we collectively have to have diversity and more inclusion," Jassy added.
Bezos has been an outspoken advocate for racial equity. In early June, he sent a rare company-wide memo condemning systemic racism in the wake of Floyd's death. Under his leadership, the tech giant donated $10 million to grant recipients like the NAACP, the ACLU Foundation, and other organizations.
But workers have urged him to enact more change internally.
Just weeks later after Bezos's memo, Amazon employees shared stories of racial and gender discrimination they experienced at work as part of an effort to add "inclusion" to the company's leadership principles - a list of 14 business philosophies created by Amazon's top executives, Insider's Eugene Kim reported.
Although it's still unclear what Jassy's plans are, the world will be watching to see how he chooses to address DEI at the retail giant.
Read more: Americans are calling on the C-suite to take a stronger stance on racial inequality.