The Amazon manager belonged to the inner circle of founder Jeff Bezos.
(Photo: Reuters)
new York Just a year ago, Dave Clark was promoted to head of Amazon’s entire consumer business. In this position, he led online retail, physical stores, the third-party marketplace and Amazon Prime. He was placed right under Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. But now he is surprisingly leaving the online retailer from Seattle – after 23 years.
Clark belonged to the inner circle of the founder Jeff Bezos. He joined Amazon in 1999 when the company was selling books almost exclusively in the United States. In recent years he was primarily responsible for the massive expansion of logistics. With the high demand in the pandemic, Amazon has doubled its storage capacity under Clark’s leadership.
“I’m a builder at heart,” Clark shared on Twitter. “It’s time to say goodbye and start a new journey.
Recently, the traditional Amazon business had come under a lot of pressure. With the end of the lockdowns, online trade has not grown as rapidly. While business grew by 44 percent in the first quarter of 2021, it only increased by seven percent in the first quarter of the current year. The division feels inflation and recently wrote losses.
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In hindsight, the billions of euros invested in warehouses, ships and aircraft fleets seem exaggerated to some observers. Many logistics centers are empty today. Only the cloud business of the AWS division, which is still booming, was able to compensate for the losses from trading.
The Amazon manager received most of his money in shares
Clark had succeeded longtime Amazon executive Jeff Wilke. Wilke has long been considered a potential Bezos successor as CEO. But then the top post went to Andy Jassy, who previously built up the cloud business.
“The past few years have been the most challenging and unpredictable we’ve seen in the history of Amazon’s consumer business, so I’m especially grateful to Dave for his leadership during this time,” Jassy wrote in an email to employees.
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Clark is among Amazon’s highest-paid executives. Last year, he received a total of $56 million — most of it in stocks. His salary, on the other hand, is only $175,000. It is not yet known who will take over his position, but will be appointed in the coming weeks, Amazon said.
The pressure on Amazon has also increased recently from shareholders. Some are already calling for the split into retail and cloud business. At last week’s AGM, Jassy promised attendees that Amazon was “working hard” to cut costs and increase profitability in online retail.
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