Amazon’s New CEO Andy Jassy Earned $213 Million in Compensation in 2021

Amazon. com Inc. Chief Executive Andy Jassy received compensation valued at $212.7 million in 2021, his first year as head of the tech and e-commerce giant.

The majority of his compensation was in stock awards to the tune of $211.9 million.

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According to Amazon’s proxy statement filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the 61,000 shares that make up the stock awards represent the special grant for his promotion to president and chief executive officer.

Mr. Jassy was named CEO in February 2021, succeeding founder Jeff Bezos after he announced his move from CEO to the role of executive chairman. Mr. Jassy officially stepped into the role in early July.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Amazon announced Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021, that Jeff Bezos would step down as CEO. Amazon says Bezos will be replaced in the summer by Jassy, who runs Amazon’s cloud business. (Isaac Brekken/AP Images for NFL, File) (AP Newsroom)

Amazon said more than 80% of the shares are scheduled to vest in five to 10 years, and is expected to represent most of Mr. Jassy’s compensation for the coming years, the company said.

“Faced with the first CEO succession in the company’s history,” Amazon said in a filing that its compensation committee “determined it important to provide for clarity and stability through an award that is designed to establish a long-term owner’s perspective and encourage bold, long-term initiatives.”

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The company said it considered compensation data for CEOs at large tech companies and others, as well as one-time awards for CEO promotions, in structuring Mr. Jassy’s compensation.

Mr. Jassy’s base salary in 2021 was $175,000, the same as it was in 2020, when he was head of the Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud-computing business. In 2020, his total compensation was $35.8 million.

An independent group formed by former and current Amazon workers voted this week to unionize a company warehouse in New York City. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, File) ((AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, File) / AP Newsroom)

Amazon recently more than doubled its maximum base pay to $350,000.

Mr. Bezos’ total compensation was valued at roughly $1.7 million. That amount, essentially unchanged for years, is mostly used to cover security for Mr. Bezos.

News about the company’s executive pay comes as workers at a New York facility voted to establish the tech giant’s first union in the U.S.

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The CEO change at Amazon marked the company’s first major leadership shift in its history. Mr. Bezos had been CEO since he started the company in a Washington state garage.

Mr. Jassy joined Amazon in 1997 and quickly earned his stars as a right-hand man to Mr. Bezos, credited with helping with the creation of Amazon Web Services, one of the company’s most profitable centers.

In the company’s fourth quarter, which included the critical holiday period, Amazon nearly doubled its profit to $14.3 billion from $7.2 billion in the prior-year period as revenue rose 9.4% to $137.4 million.

AWS contributed around $17.8 billion to the company’s revenue in the quarter, rising about 40% in the period.

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Amazon’s financial results surprised some analysts who expected a more subdued performance as Amazon dealt with rising costs across a number of fronts.

Write to Adriano Marchese at [email protected]

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