Jeff Bezos is moving some pieces around the leadership boards of several of his prominent companies. Blue Origin's CEO Bob Smith is stepping down, to be replaced by Amazon executive David Limp. The executive shuffle comes as Bezos is seeking to grow his space company into a viable competitor to a market that is largely dominated by Elon Musk's SpaceX.
Smith is retiring Dec. 4, but said in a note that he will remain with the company until Jan. 2 to help ease along the CEO transition.
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"It has been my privilege to be part of this great team, and I am confident that Blue Origin’s greatest achievements are still ahead of us," Smith said in a note to Blue staff members obtained by CNBC. "We’ve rapidly scaled this company from its prototyping and research roots to a large, prominent space business. We have the right strategy, a supremely talented team, a robust customer base, and some of the most technically ambitious and exciting projects in the entire industry."
This executive transition comes during a busy time for Blue Origin; the space firm has to get its space tourism rocket New Shephard back in the air, send its next-generation New Glenn rocket on its maiden voyage and execute a recently-won NASA contract to develop a crewed lunar lander.
Limp has been with Amazon (AMZN) -) for nearly 14 years, where he most recently led Amazon's devices and services, overseeing Alexa, Kindle and Kuiper (Amazon's satellite internet arm).
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"Dave is a proven innovator with a customer-first mindset and extensive experience leading and scaling large, complex organizations," Bezos wrote in a note to Blue's team. "Dave has an outstanding sense of urgency, brings energy to everything, and helps teams move very fast."
Blue Origin is planning to launch its New Glenn rocket sometime next year, though it has not yet revealed an expected launch date. Company executives noted in August that where SpaceX learns from its sometimes-explosive mistakes, Blue's more methodical approach should ideally result in a smooth test flight, when they do finally fire the engines.
“I think everybody wants New Glenn to fly at the earliest time possible. Everybody does,” Smith said in August. But “we’re not going to sacrifice doing it right.”
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