Longtime Amazon Web Services leader Charlie Bell has reportedly taken a job at Microsoft.
Bell, a member of Amazon’s senior leadership team and a longtime linchpin of the company’s cloud business, left the Seattle company this month after more than 23 years.
Business Insider reported earlier Wednesday that Bell was headed to Microsoft. The Information and CNBC later confirmed that the Redmond, Wash.-based tech giant hired Bell as corporate vice president.
We’ve reached out to Microsoft and Bell for comment. Update: Microsoft declined to comment.
The hire is a coup for Microsoft’s Azure arm in its cloud computing battle with AWS, the market leader in the sector.
Bell joined Amazon in 1998 when it acquired his company, Server Technologies Group, an e-commerce transaction software company that he founded in 1996 after leaving Oracle, according to his LinkedIn bio. It describes his role at Amazon as leading the “general management of AWS services, including product definition, pricing, P&Ls, software development, and service operations.”
Bell’s departure from Amazon is the latest change in AWS executive team as the cloud division’s longtime leader, Andy Jassy, takes over as Amazon CEO. AWS is now led by CEO Adam Selipsky, who rejoined Amazon to replace Jassy after his tenure as CEO of Tableau Software in Seattle. Bell was a candidate to replace Jassy as chief of AWS.
Several Amazon execs have left the company this year, including Steve Kessel, who led Amazon’s physical stores business; Wei Gao, a 16-year Amazonian who helped lead the company’s grocery efforts; and former Amazon Worldwide Consumer CEO Jeff Wilke, among others. AWS leaders including Larry Augustin and Teresa Carlson also departed.
