AWS senior exec Charlie Bell departs the company after 23 years
Bell's departure is the latest in a string of senior personnel moves for the company
![AWS logo displayed on a smartphone](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Rjkn2ToZKK3FQ9Wry98wm5-320-80.jpg)
Charlie Bell, one of Amazon’s top executives in its cloud business, is leaving the company after 23 years.
AWS senior vice president Peter DeSantis, who worked on global infrastructure, is set to become the new leader for utility computing which Bell was managing, according to CNBC. Prasad Kalyanaraman, a vice president at the company, will assume responsibility for infrastructure and network services.
Bell’s departure is the latest in a string of high-level personnel moves at AWS. Bell was reportedly considered a candidate to replace AWS CEO Andy Jassy when he became Amazon CEO last month, but Tableau CEO and former Amazon employee Adam Selipsky was chosen instead.
Bell has been with the company since 1998 when his business, Server Technologies Group, was acquired by the company, according to his LinkedIn. Before that, he was a manager at Oracle between 1989 and 1996, and a space shuttle flight interface engineer at Boeing between 1979 and 1989.
In a video posted by Amazon Science, he revealed he started at the company when it was “just selling books”. Bell initially led infrastructure before moving to the AWS business in 2006 as it began developing core EC2 and S3 computing and storage services.
The new leadership mindset for data and analytics
How to grow your data and analytics talent, empowering a data culture from the inside out, and more
In February, the head of AWS Andy Jassy was announced as the successor to Jeff Bezos - seen as a logical next step given Jassy joined Amazon in 1997 and would go on to found AWS in 2002.
Following this, in March, Salesforce executive Adam Selipsky was appointed AWS CEO. This saw Selipsky return to AWS after leaving the company in 2016 to become the CEO of Tableau. He spent the previous 11 years as AWS vice president of sales, marketing and support.
Get the ITPro. daily newsletter
Receive our latest news, industry updates, featured resources and more. Sign up today to receive our FREE report on AI cyber crime & security - newly updated for 2024.
Selipsky’s time at Tableau saw the company’s value quadruple as he led its move from licenses to subscriptions. It was eventually acquired by Salesforce in 2019, where Selipsky became a member of its executive leadership board in addition to his role as Tableau CEO.
Zach Marzouk is a former ITPro, CloudPro, and ChannelPro staff writer, covering topics like security, privacy, worker rights, and startups, primarily in the Asia Pacific and the US regions. Zach joined ITPro in 2017 where he was introduced to the world of B2B technology as a junior staff writer, before he returned to Argentina in 2018, working in communications and as a copywriter. In 2021, he made his way back to ITPro as a staff writer during the pandemic, before joining the world of freelance in 2022.
Resources
Get the ITPro. daily newsletter
Receive our latest news, industry updates, featured resources and more. Sign up today to receive our FREE report on AI cyber crime & security - newly updated for 2024.