Amazon Ups Dave Clark To Worldwide Consumer CEO As Jeff Wilke Plans Retirement

Dade Hayes
·2 min read

Dave Clark, a 21-year veteran of Amazon, has been elevated to CEO of Worldwide Consumer. He succeeds Jeff Wilke, who plans to retire in the first quarter of 2021.

The tech giant revealed the news Friday in a brief SEC filing.

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Clark, who was named SVP of Worldwide Operations in 2013, has spearheaded the company’s operational response to COVID-19. Initially staggered by the intense demand of homebound customers around the world, Amazon’s systems quickly reached holiday-season levels of activity at a time of year that is typically sedate.

Amazon added hundreds of thousands of workers and a fleet of delivery vehicles, among an array of other pandemic measures, and has seen its financial results surge. Investors have made the company’s stock one of the biggest winners of 2020, sending it up 80%.

Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and CEO, is by far the most public figure in the company’s top management ranks and the company’s success has made him the richest person alive. Clark has developed a reputation for his straightforward and hard-driving style. Amazon has drawn complaints from workers in its warehouses over working conditions and its labor relations were one of the factors that caused a breakup with New York City, where the company had planned to open a major outpost. The “HQ2” project instead was split up between the suburbs of Washington, D.C. and a collection of smaller sites.

Bezos relies on an “S-team” of more than two dozen senior executives from across the company. Members of the group, which has expanded in recent years, manage day-to-day operations within their various specialties and consult with Bezos on key strategic decisions.

Wilke joined Amazon in 1999, serving in a variety of roles. He was named head of worldwide consumer operations in 2016.

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