SEATTLE – Jeff Wilke, CEO of Amazon’s major consumer company, said on Friday that he plans to retire next year with more than two decades with the company, in a rare change from the wait at the top of ‘ and e-commerce giant.
Mr. Wilke, 53, has been one of two chief executives of specific companies at Amazon reporting to Jeff Bezos, the company’s founder and CEO. (The other is Andy Jassy, who leads Amazon’s cloud computing division.)
Mr. Wilke is the most senior executive to leave Amazon amid a wave of departures from Mr.’s management team. Bezos in recent years, with the men who built the business retiring or turning to other ventures. Dave Clark, 47, the senior vice president who has run Amazon’s operations, including its logistics and supply chain, will take on the role of Mr. Wilke take over.
‘So why leave? It’s just time, “Mr Wilke wrote in an email to staff. He said he had not landed another job and he was “as happy with and proud of Amazon as ever.” He added that he was ready to “have time to explore personal interests that have taken a back seat for more than two decades.”
Mr. Wilke “is just one of those people without whom Amazon would be completely unrecognizable,” said Mr. Bezos, 56, in a separate email to the company.
Amazon had no official comment outside of the emails. Mr. Wilke did not respond to a request for comment.
When Mr. Wilke was hired to conduct operations in 1999, Amazon had just expanded into five warehouses and did not have much operational expertise, said Dave Glick, a 20-year-old Amazon veteran who is now an executive at Flexe , a start of e-commerce completion- on.
“Wilke came in with a stiff hand, an emphasis on safety and on metrics and process, which allowed us to scale the business,” Mr Glick said. “When he took over retail, he brought the same level of focus to people, process and metrics, allowing us to grow that business as well.”
In 2016, Mr. Bezos appointed Mr. Wilke as chief executive of the consumer business, a new role. Under Mr Wilke, Amazon’s consumer business has been transformed into one of the most powerful forces in retail by acquiring the Whole Foods grocery chain, expanding its large third-party brand and turning an event known as Prime Day into a shopping holiday that rivals Christmas.
In 2019, the consumer business generated worldwide $ 245 billion in revenue, compared to $ 124 billion in 2016.
As Mr. Bezos progressed more and more from day to day of running Amazon, Mr. Wilke took on a wide range of jobs. He flew to New York to meet with Gov. Meet Andrew M. Cuomo to discuss building a second headquarters in Queens. He has also struggled with counterfeit products in their marketplace, delays in their drone delivery plans and growing anti-trust control.
Most recently, the coronavirus pandemic punished Amazon’s actions as consumer orders went up and Amazon wrestled with the safety of its warehouse workers. At one point, Mr. Bezos called the period “the hardest time we have ever encountered.”
Mr. Wilke is known for an aggressive and sometimes argumentative approach in meetings. He has helped form a generation of leaders at Amazon, some of whom have stayed with the company, while others have performed with executives at other large companies.
Amazon is based in Seattle, but Mr. Wilke has lived part-time in Los Angeles for family reasons. He has made more than $ 200 million from Amazon, according to Equilar, which follows executive compensation.
Mr. Bezos’ team, the senior management team that leads the company, has seen other deviations in recent years, for the most part from men who spent the better part of their careers building Amazon.
Last year, Jeff Blackburn, a former vice president, went on sabbatical and is yet to return, and Steve Kessel, who ran Amazon’s physical stores, retired. She, along with Mr. Wilke, all started at Amazon in the late 1990s, a critical time in the expansion of the company.
Mr. Clark has been ascendant in recent years as Amazon has invested billions of dollars in expanding its operations, building hundreds of warehouses, as well as its own network of trucks and last-mile delivery. He was widely seen as Mr Wilke’s successor, as he took on more responsibilities, including the Prime membership company, marketing and the physical retail business, including Whole Foods.
In his email on Friday, Mr. Wilke said three operators will join the senior leadership team of Mr. Bezos, including Alicia Boler Davis, who joined Amazon from General Motors a year ago to pursue customer service and will be the first Black member of the S team.
