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Bob Smith, CEO of Blue Origin LLC, (L), and Dave Limp, senior vice president of devices and services for Amazon.com Inc.
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Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin will replace CEO Bob Smith as he steps down Amazon director Dave Limp, CNBC has learned.
Smith will retire effective Dec. 4 and will remain with the company until Jan. 2 for the CEO transition, according to notes for Blue Origin employees written by Smith and Bezos and obtained by CNBC.
Limp joins Blue Origin at an important stage of the company’s multiple space projects. Blue must ramp up production of its BE-4 rocket engines, return its New Shepard space tourism rocket to flight and launch its next-generation New Glenn rocket for the first time — and fulfill a recently won NASA contract for orbit. manned lunar lander.
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In a statement to CNBC, a Blue Origin spokesperson praised Limp as “a proven innovator with a customer-centric mindset” who has “extensive experience in the high-tech industry and growing highly complex organizations.”
Amazon announced last month that Limp would resign later this year. As Amazon’s head of devices and services, Limp oversaw Amazon’s Alexa, Echo and Ring units, as well as some of its more experimental divisions like Zoox’s autonomous vehicles and Project Kuiper’s internet satellite business.
Limp’s Amazon success
Dave Limp, Senior Vice President, Devices & Services, speaks at Amazon’s headquarters in Crystal City, Virginia, on September 20, 2023.
Eric Lee | The Washington Post | Getty Images
Limp’s dismissal came as a shock, considering he worked at Amazon for more than thirteen years. He became a top lieutenant to CEO Andy Jassy and a member of Amazon’s vaunted S-Team, a tight-knit group of senior executives across nearly all of its businesses.
Furthermore, Limp and Bezos worked closely together when the Amazon founder was still CEO. Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant and Echo smart speakers were favorite projects of Bezos, and Limp led both high-profile launches.
Amazon hasn’t announced a replacement for Limp yet, but Bloomberg And other outlets have reported that the company is expected to hire Microsoft product chief Panos Panay.
Smith’s few Blue Origin results
American billionaire Jeff Bezos walks with Blue Origin President and CEO Bob Smith after Bezos flew to the edge of space on the company’s first flight on July 20, 2021, in the nearby city of Van Horn, Texas.
Joe Schipper | Reuters
Smith took control of Blue Origin in 2017 after 13 years at aerospace conglomerate Honeywell, with Bezos spending billions annually to transform his space venture into an industry powerhouse.
Under Smith’s leadership, Blue Origin built an infrastructure across the U.S., adding a major rocket engine manufacturing and testing site in Alabama, expanding rocket manufacturing and launch facilities in Florida, and opening sites in California, Arizona and Colorado .
The most high-profile success during Smith’s tenure came in July 2021, when Bezos flew with the first crew of Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket to the edge of space and back.
But delays and setbacks marred each of Blue Origin’s major programs under Smith. Both the large New Glenn rocket and the BE-4 engines – the latter of which is also needed for fellow rocket company United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan vehicle – are years behind schedule. It lost a lucrative round of Pentagon launch contracts in 2020 and must fly New Glenn to show the US Space Force can get military missions in the coming round of awards.
Earlier this year, Blue Origin won a $3.4 billion NASA contract to build a lunar lander for the agency’s astronauts. But the competition was a second-chance contest that NASA organized after Elon Musk’s SpaceX was the sole winner of the first lander contract in 2021 — an award decision that Blue Origin took to federal court and lost.
These scheduling errors were compounded by accusations from current and former employees that the company had a toxic and sexist workplace. Smith responded to these claims by saying that Blue Origin had “zero tolerance for discrimination or harassment of any kind,” but that the company experienced high employee turnover in 2021. However, Blue Origin has been hiring aggressively since then. Bezos noted Monday that the company had grown to more than 10,000 employees, up from about 4,000 about two years earlier.
Read Bezos’ message to Blue Origin employees on Monday:
I am pleased to share that Dave Limp will be joining Blue as CEO effective December 4, replacing Bob, who has chosen to step aside on January 2. The overlap is to ensure a smooth transition.
Before I provide some background on Dave, I would like to take the time to recognize Bob and the significant growth and transformation we have experienced during his tenure. Under Bob’s leadership, Blue has grown to several billion dollars in sales orders, with a significant backlog for our vehicles and engines. Our team has grown from 850 people when Bob joined to more than 10,000 today. We’ve expanded from one office in Kent to building a launch pad at LC-36 and five million square feet of facilities across seven states.
Our mission has also grown: we have flown 31 people above the Kármán Line, almost five percent of all people who have been in space. Flight-qualified BE-4 engines are ready to launch Vulcan into orbit. New Glenn is nearing launch next year, and with our recent NASA contract we will land Americans on the moon again, this time to stay. We’ve also engaged and inspired millions of children and educators through our Club for the Future efforts. We have made tremendous progress in building a path to space for the benefit of Earth, thanks to each of you and Bob’s leadership.
I have worked closely with Dave for many years. He is the right leader at the right time for Blue. Dave joins us after nearly 14 years at Amazon, where he was most recently senior vice president of Amazon Devices and Services, leading Kuiper, Kindle, Alexa, Zoox and many other companies. Before Amazon, Dave held positions at other high-tech companies, including Palm and Apple. Dave is a proven innovator with a customer-centric mindset and extensive experience leading and scaling large, complex organizations. Dave has an excellent sense of urgency, brings energy to everything and helps teams move forward quickly.
Please join me in welcoming Dave and thanking Bob. I know that during this transition we will remain focused on our customer commitments, production schedules and execution with speed and operational excellence. I look forward to the many exciting and historic milestones ahead!
Jeff
Read Smith’s message to Blue Origin employees:
Team Blue,
It’s been about six years since I joined Blue Origin. During that time, our team, facilities and sales orders have grown dramatically, and we have made significant contributions to the history of spaceflight.
With pride and satisfaction in all we have accomplished, I announce that I will be stepping aside as Chief Executive Officer of Blue Origin, effective December 4. I will remain with Blue until January 2 to ensure a smooth transition with the new CEO.
It has been a privilege for me to be part of this great team, and I am confident that Blue Origin’s greatest achievements are still ahead of us. We quickly scaled this company from its prototyping and research roots to a large, prominent aerospace company. We have the right strategy. an extremely talented team, a robust customer base and some of the most technically ambitious and exciting projects in the entire industry. We also have a team that cares deeply about its mission, legacy and how we contribute to the next generation and bring everyone to a better future.
Jeff and I have been discussing my plan for months, and Jeff will soon announce Blue’s new CEO in a separate note. I am very excited about the operational excellence and culture of innovation that this new leader will bring to Blue. building on the foundation we have laid in recent years.
I am doing everything I can to ensure this transition goes smoothly, and everyone should know that I will always be on Team Blue.
Gradatim Ferociter.
Bob Smith
Correction: An earlier version of this story mischaracterized Dave Limp’s status at Amazon.
