(CNN Business)Dave Clark, Amazon’s Worldwide Consumer CEO, is quitting after 23 years at the giant of e-commerce.
Amazon ( AMZN) announced the resignation of Clark starting on July 1 in a regulatory file in Amazon (AMZN) on Friday. US Securities and Exchange Commission Friday. In an email, Clark said: “I’ve enjoyed a fantastic time at Amazon, but it’s time to start building again. This is what drives me.”
While working at Amazon, Clark helped build and oversee Amazon’s sprawling logistics network that includes warehouses, delivery trucks, cargo ships, and planes, which allowed it to speed up delivery times as well as dominate the online shopping market.
The CEO’s departure occurs when Amazon is facing a variety of new challenges, such as declining growth, growing scrutiny from regulators, and rising organizational efforts among warehouse employees. Particularly, the consumer segment has been under pressure as the AWS cloud-based services continue to earn enormous profits.
During the pandemic, Amazon saw a rise in both hiring and demand as people moved greater purchases online. However, in April, Amazon announced lower revenue growth and higher expenses in its first quarter. This pushed its stock price down dramatically.
Andy Jassy, who took the reins as CEO of Amazon last summer, replacing the founder Jeff Bezos, said in an announcement in an earnings update that “the outbreak and the subsequent conflict in Ukraine have brought unprecedented growth and also challenges.” Jassy also said that Amazon continues to “work through the constant tensions in supply chain and inflation.”
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In his letter to Amazon employees on Friday, Clark mentioned his challenges and expressed his confidence in Amazon’s team to work beyond them.
“We have a fantastic management team across the Consumer business, and they are prepared to tackle more challenges as the company grows beyond the challenges we faced during the Covid-19 pandemic,” said the writer. “We additionally have a well-constructed multi-year strategy to combat the rising costs we’re going to face in 2022.”
Amazon has also been a target of unionization initiatives in the past few months, most notably in Staten Island, New York, where workers in one warehouse voted to create the company’s first US trade union in April. Amazon is contesting the results and is calling for a re-run of the union elections.
