Former Amazon VP explains why he shut down CEO Jeff Bezos in front of his board
Someone as powerful as Jeff Bezos can be an intimidating figure, even for higher-level executives, yet one former Amazon Vice President has revealed how he shut down the company's CEO and co-founder — and why he was trained to do exactly that.
Taking to X in an illuminating thread, Ethan Evans – who first started working at Amazon back in 2005 and eventually worked his way up to Vice President of several different sections of the business from 2013 to 2019 – revealed that he told Jeff Bezos a simple 'no' in front of the company's Board of Directors.
While this might seem like the last thing any company's CEO would want to hear – let alone someone as successful as Bezos – yet the reasoning behind Evans' decision-making process here makes sense and likely contributes to Amazon's market-leading dominance as a whole.
"I told Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos 'no' in front of his Board of Directors," Evans revealed on social media, explaining that he "did it because I was trained to do so."
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The question that prompted this response related to the expected performance of Amazon Game Publishing Services, which Evans was in charge of as part of his role as Vice President of Prime Gaming.
"He asked if our game organization was on the path to be 'as big as Tencent games'," the ex-VP indicated, and that would certainly be a difficult prospect even for Amazon as the Chinese tech conglomerate outweighs nearly everyone in the industry by sheer size alone.
As a result it would be difficult for Evans to achieve this lofty goal, yet he didn't shy away from that fact and instead revealed it immediately to Bezos and the board.
"I didn't tell him 'no' with a bunch of words and positioning," Evans illustrated. "We were not [going to be as big as Tencent], so the first word out of my mouth was 'no'.
I told Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos "no" in front of his Board of Directors. I did it because I was trained to do so.
— Ethan Evans (@EthanEvansVP) June 29, 2026
"I went on to explain why, but most people in this situation first explain, then work their way around to a soft no, like 'for these reasons, we are not really on a path to be as big as Tencent'."
Instead, he was forced to learn how to discard these instincts while working at Amazon, as the company valued clarity and cared not for how the information was softened or contextualized if the answer was the same regardless.
"If the answer to a question is yes, no, or a number, start with that," Evans outlined as the core principle of communicating as an Amazon executive, and that's bound to save a lot of time.
"Since it was a yes or no question, I had to say no. But I would not have had the courage to disappoint Jeff in front of an audience if I had not been trained in this method."
Revealing two lessons and rules that everyone else should learn from his own experience, Evans detailed that "training your brain is *key* to Executive Presence. Having clear rules for how to speak powerfully and clearly makes it possible to do under pressure."
Adding to this, he also noted that you need to "know what your culture wants and tolerates. Some cultures would hate the same answer Jeff appreciated."
Not every board room or meeting will work the same as Amazon, but adapting yourself to your environment regardless is going to be key to ensuring success.