SEATTLE — Jeff Wilke, the chief executive of Amazon’s vast consumer business, said on Friday that he planned to retire early next year after more than two decades with the company, in a rare changing of the guard at the top of the e-commerce giant.

Mr. Wilke, 53, has been one of two chiefs of specific businesses at Amazon who report to Jeff Bezos, the company’s founder and chief executive. (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. Bezos’ leadership team in recent years, with the men who built the company 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 over Mr. Wilke’s role.

“So why leave? It’s just time,” Mr. Wilke wrote in an email to staff. He said he did not have another job lined up and had been “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 over two decades.”

Source: New York Times

Powered by NewsAPI.org