Receive free Blue Origin LLC updates
we will send you myFT Daily Digest Email summary of latest news Blue Origin Ltd. There is news every morning.
Amazon.com Inc said on Monday that outgoing devices chief Dave Limp will take over the helm of Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin at the end of the year.
Limp, who has spent years leading teams developing the Seattle-based tech giant’s Alexa voice assistant and other devices, will succeed Blue Origin Chief Executive Bob Smith in December.
Blue Origin, owned by Amazon founder Bezos, is the first company to successfully launch, land and reuse a rocket. Lately, however, the company, which was founded in 2000, has fallen behind Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Last year, a Blue Origin rocket that was not carrying any passengers malfunctioned shortly after launch, the company’s first major accident since it opened services to the public. It has since suspended launches.
Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, another space company founded by a billionaire, has recently joined the race to make tourism beyond Earth a reality.
Smith, an aerospace veteran, joined the group in 2017 from Honeywell Aerospace with a mission to transform the company from a research organization to a business.
During his tenure, he led Blue Origin’s transformation into commercial operations with nearly “$10 billion in customer orders and more than 10,000 employees,” the company said.
In a statement, Blue Origin described Limp as a “proven innovator with a customer-first mindset” who has “extensive experience in high-tech industries and growing highly complex organizations,” including Amazon’s satellite broadband Network Kuiper.
Smith was granted an exception to stay at Blue Origin until January 2 during the transition period.
Beyond tourism, Blue Origin is also looking to expand its space services more broadly, including plans to build an international launch facility. The U.S. Space Agency (NASA) said in May that it had selected Blue Origin to develop a spacecraft to send astronauts to the moon, with a contract worth $3.4 billion.
CEO Andy Jassy seemed less excited than Bezos that Limp would be leaving Amazon after significant layoffs in its hardware division. Last week, as part of excitement over Amazon’s attempt to harness generative artificial intelligence, Limp unveiled the company’s plans for the next generation of Alexa, which he said will be “smarter and more conversational.”
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Svlook
