LAS VEGAS (AP) - The longtime CEO of Las Vegas-based online shoe retailer Zappos.com is retiring from the company.
Company spokeswoman Laura Davis confirmed to the Las Vegas Review-Journal Monday that Tony Hsieh stepped down after 20 years at the helm.
He is being succeeded as CEO by Chief Operating Officer Kedar Deshpande.
Hsieh, 46, is a Harvard University graduate who joined the online shoe company then called ShoeSite.com in 1999. The company moved from San Franscisco to Henderson in 2004, then moved to downtown Las Vegas in 2013.
Zappos was sold to Amazon for $1.2 billion in 2009, but Hsieh remained with the company.
He has a residence in downtown Las Vegas and in 2012 invested $350 million into revitalizing the city’s downtown area, developing the popular Container Park with its fire-breathing praying mantis art sculpture at the entrance.
“Everything Tony did in helping rebuild downtown was energized, mesmerizing and exciting for our city,” Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman told the newspaper. “He’s a modest person. He’s not a braggart, but he loves to do things that are different and challenging. When everyone is swimming downstream, he is swimming upstream.”
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