Amazon announced Doug Herrington’s promotion to president and CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores on June 21. His new duties will consist of overseeing several key areas of the e-commerce giant such as online stores, physical stores, third-party seller marketplace, Amazon Prime subscription, etc. This appointment comes in a difficult context for tech companies. After enjoying flourishing activity during the pandemic, the sector is gradually entering a period of recession, or a return to normal.
New names at the head of the company
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy broke the news in a message to company employees. Doug Herrington, with 17 years of experience with the company, will take over from Dave Clark, the former CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores. The latter had revealed, in early June, his desire to leave his post at the e-commerce giant. A few days later, he was appointed manager of Flexport, a company specializing in freight forwarding and customs brokerage.
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Doug Herrington is presented as highly qualified to take over from Dave Clark. In 2007, he launched Amazon Fresh, an Amazon subsidiary that offers a connected grocery store service. The branch’s first physical store opened in August 2020 in Los Angeles before expanding to several major US cities as well as internationally.
Picture: Amazon
In a bombastic message, Andy Jassy writing about him that he ” is a great team builder and brings extensive experience in retail, grocery, demand generation, product development and Amazon. He is also a great inventor for customers, he thinks big, has a thoughtful vision of how category management and operations can work together. He is someone who brings people together, he is very curious and he learns a lot. I believe Doug will do great things for customers and employees, and I look forward to working with him in this leadership role. “.
He will be supported by John Felton, an executive working for Amazon since 2004. Felton will be the company’s new chief operating officer and will assist the new CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores in his missions.
Amazon is not escaping the recession
As the tech industry enters a recession, many tech companies are being forced to revise their plans. Since the start of the year, a wave of layoffs has been wreaking havoc, particularly among start-ups, which are much more fragile. However, the giants are not insensitive to the current climate and Amazon is no exception to the rule.
The company, founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, posted a net loss of $3.8 billion in the first quarter of 2022, its first quarterly loss since 2015. It had a net profit of $8.1 billion at the end of the year. same period last year.
In addition to Dave Clark, Amazon is departing Alicia Boler Davis, overseer of the company’s fulfillment network, and Dave Bozeman, vice president of transportation services. The departure of these two senior executives risks further weakening the teams of the e-commerce juggernaut. According to Nick Wingfield, journalist for The Information, these internal changes are proof of the complexity of Amazon’s organizational chart. It would then be far too difficult for potential external recruits to understand all the subtleties.