Amazon consumer chief Dave Clark resigns after 23 years

The Amazon executive who oversees the company’s worldwide consumer business is stepping down after 23 years as the e-commerce giant takes care of its overabundance of warehouse space.

Dave Clark’s last day at the Seattle-based company will be July 1, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wrote Friday in a post on the company’s blog. Amazon did not name a replacement for Clark, but Jassy wrote that he hopes to have “an update” in the coming weeks.

“As much as I enjoyed the trip, it’s time for me to say goodbye to starting a new journey,” Clark wrote in an email to his team that he posted on Twitter. “For some time now, I’ve been talking about my intention to make the transition from Amazon to my family and others close to me, but I wanted to make sure the teams were ready to succeed. I’m sure now it’s the moment”.

The retailer has also faced unionization efforts by some warehouse workers. Last month, workers at the Amazon warehouse in New York City voted against to form a union, although at the beginning of the year the workers of another warehouse voted in favor of the first success US organizing effort in the story of the retail giant.

At the same time, Amazon shares have fallen 28% this year amid investor concern about headwinds for retailers, including inflation and temperate demand for online shopping as the pandemic eases. .

He oversaw the expansion of Amazon during the pandemic

Clark joined Amazon in 1999, just one day after graduating from an MBA program, Jassy said. As CEO of Amazon’s global consumer business, he leads several units, including Amazon’s physical and online stores, the third-party retailer market, and Amazon’s Prime subscription, the largest generation of money for the e-commerce giant.

Clark took over the role in January 2021, helping oversee a massive expansion of Amazon’s logistics footprint as the company struggled to match its physical capacity with the large number of consumer orders confined at home during the pandemic. Amazon has doubled the size of its operations and nearly doubled its staff in the last two years. But as the worst of the pandemic eased, it found itself with too many workers and too much space.

To address the issue, the company plans to sublet at least 10 million square feet of space and could end up with more of its leases in states such as New York, New Jersey and California. In April, it recorded its first quarterly loss since 2015, driven by the slowdown in e-commerce and a massive drop in its investment in the start-up of electric vehicles. Rivian Automotive.

Jassy said Amazon has more work to do to get where it wants to be in its consumer business.

“While change is never easy, I am optimistic about the plan that the Consumer team has built and I am confident that if we stay focused on executing it, we will deliver the right customer experiences and business results.” , he said. .

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