Amazon has appointed Salesforce executive Adam Selipsky to lead its cloud computing unit Amazon Web Services (AWS).

AWS is currently the tech giant’s most profitable division, posting $13.5 billion in profit for its 2020 financial year.

The division controlled 32 per cent of the cloud infrastructure market globally in the fourth quarter of 2020, exceeding the combined market share of its two largest competitors Microsoft and Google, according to research from Synergy Research Group.

Selipsky is currently chief executive of Salesforce’s business analytics software subsidiary Tableau Software, which Salesforce acquired in June 2019 for $15.7 billion.

The Seattle-based executive was first hired by AWS in 2005, and headed up the cloud computing division's sales, marketing, and support for 11 years.

Selipsky is set to start his new role at AWS on 17 May, replacing previous boss Andy Jassy, who is set to become chief executive of the entire Amazon operation.

Jassy will replace Amazon founder Jeff Bezos who announced his departure in February to focus on other ventures like space firm Blue Origin and The Washington Post.

“Adam brings strong judgment, customer obsession, team building, demand generation, and CEO experience to an already very strong AWS leadership team,” Jassy wrote in an email to Amazon employees. “And, having been in such a senior role at AWS for 11 years, he knows our culture and business well.”

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