Amazon’s next chief executive made his name by launching one of the retail behemoth’s most profitable businesses—from South Africa. Andy Jassy, who joined Amazon in 1997 as a technical assistant to Jeff Bezos, started Amazon Web Services (AWS), of which he later became CEO. The web service business ushered in the era of cloud computing and now accounts for more than half of Amazon’s operating profit.
via The South African origins of Andy Jassy’s Amazon Web Services — Quartz Africa.