Jeff Wilke, CEO of Amazon’s global consumer division, plans to retire in the first quarter of 2021, the company announced Friday in a statement.
Wilke oversees several of Amazon’s high-priority companies and was considered a possible successor to CEO Jeff Bezos. The Pittsburgh native (and Steelers fan) joined the company in 1999 and helped build Amazon’s logistics operations into the behemoth it is today. He was put in charge of the global consumer business in 2016.
He said in a memo to staff on Friday that it was “time for me to take time to explore personal interests that have taken a back seat for more than two decades,” according to The Wall Street Journal, adding that he was focusing on preparing Amazon for the upcoming season for holiday shopping.
Bezos said in an email to employees that Wilke had set up the company to succeed in his absence, referring to him as a “tutor.”
“Jeff’s legacy and influence will live on long after he leaves,” Bezos wrote. “He’s just one of those people without whom Amazon would be completely unrecognizable.”
Wilke is among several top Amazon executives who recently announced they were leaving the company. Vice President of Robotics Brad Porter announced last week that he is leaving to join an AI company. Peter Vosshall, a distinguished engineer at Amazon Web Services, with pension in February, and Paul Viola of Amazon’s Air Division left earlier this year as well.
Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior vice president of retail, will succeed Wilke. According to a Bloomberg profile of last year, Clark has a reputation for trying to get Amazon warehouses to judge if people worked hard enough, earning him the nickname “The Sniper”.
