Bezos Names Former Alexa Chief Tom Taylor to Lead $10 Billion Earth Fund

Jeff Bezos has appointed longtime Amazon executive Tom Taylor as president and chief executive officer of the $10 billion Bezos Earth Fund, according to statements posted on 15 July. Taylor, who ran Amazon’s Alexa voice-assistant division and previously oversaw the company’s third-party seller services, retired from the e-commerce giant in 2022 after a 23-year career. Taylor succeeds environmental economist Andrew Steer, who stepped down in February. He will be responsible for accelerating the fund’s grant-making aimed at climate and biodiversity projects worldwide. Since its launch in 2020, the Bezos Earth Fund has distributed about $2.3 billion and intends to commit the remaining capital by 2030. Bezos, who relinquished the Amazon CEO role in 2021, has increasingly focused on the philanthropic initiative, transferring Amazon shares to finance the fund’s work. In his LinkedIn announcement, Taylor said the mandate is to “invent our way out of Earth’s environmental challenges” through long-term thinking and technical innovation.