Dave Brown, a senior vice president at Amazon Web Services, is departing the company after nearly 19 years, AWS announced Wednesday. Brown plans to leave at the end of this month for a new role outside of the company, according to a memo from AWS CEO Matt Garman to staff. Dave Treadwell, a top executive in Amazon's e-commerce division, will replace Brown in overseeing AWS compute and machine learning services. The departure comes as AWS benefits from strong artificial intelligence demand, with the cloud unit recording 28% revenue growth in the first quarter.
Dave Brown Built AWS EC2 Service in South Africa in 2000s
Brown joined AWS in its infancy and was a member of the early team that assembled its core EC2 service in South Africa in the 2000s, according to his LinkedIn profile. EC2, one of AWS' oldest services, provides virtual slices of physical servers for rent, billed by the second, that companies use to run applications and websites.
More recently, Brown's responsibilities expanded to include AWS' compute and machine learning services, such as its Bedrock and SageMaker offerings. He is also part of Amazon CEO Andy Jassy's S-team, a highly influential group of 28 executives that report to Jassy and meet with him regularly to make key business decisions.
"Dave has been a big part of what we have built at AWS, and I want to personally thank him for all of his contributions in helping grow and develop the technology, the business and the team," Garman wrote in his memo to staffers.
Dave Treadwell Moves from Amazon E-Commerce to Replace Brown
Dave Treadwell will take over Brown's responsibilities at AWS, according to Garman's announcement. In a separate memo, Brown said it felt "like the right time for me to begin a new chapter" and added that his organization is "in outstanding hands" under Treadwell.
"He's an exceptional leader with deep technical expertise, relentless customer focus, and a genuine passion for building strong teams," Brown wrote about his successor.
AWS Records 28% Revenue Growth Driven by AI Services Demand
Brown's departure comes as AWS has benefited from strong demand for artificial intelligence services, helping the unit record 28% revenue growth in the first quarter. Cloud rivals Microsoft and Google have also been riding a surge in AI-related spending, according to the announcement.
FAQ
What role did Dave Brown hold at Amazon Web Services?
Dave Brown served as a senior vice president at Amazon Web Services, overseeing compute and machine learning services including Bedrock and SageMaker. He was also a member of Amazon CEO Andy Jassy's S-team, a group of 28 executives that make key business decisions.
Who is replacing Dave Brown at AWS?
Dave Treadwell, a top executive from Amazon's e-commerce division, will replace Dave Brown in overseeing AWS compute and machine learning services, according to AWS CEO Matt Garman's announcement.
What was Dave Brown's contribution to AWS in its early years?
Dave Brown joined AWS in its infancy and was a member of the early team that assembled the core EC2 service in South Africa in the 2000s. EC2 is one of AWS' oldest services, providing virtual server slices for rent that companies use to run applications and websites.
