Breaking from Bloomberg/Yahoo
Two of Amazon.com Inc.’s top Black executives are leaving amid a management shakeup as Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy puts his stamp on the company about a year into his tenure.
Alicia Boler Davis, a senior vice president who oversaw Amazon’s logistics warehouses, and Dave Bozeman, vice president of transportation services, “have decided to explore new opportunities outside Amazon,” newly named operations division chief John Felton said in an email to staff.
The departures coincide with the announcement that Doug Herrington will run the company’s sprawling retail and logistics operation with the new title chief executive officer of Worldwide Stores. He replaces Dave Clark, a 23-year veteran who helped create a warehouse network and in-house delivery service that speeds packages to customers in two days or less. Felton, who has been with the company for 18 years, will oversee the operations division and report to Herrington.
Herrington, who lives near Jassy in Amazon’s hometown Seattle, is ascending at a challenging moment. Online sales growth has slowed now that consumers are returning to their pre-pandemic spending habits, leaving Amazon with too much warehouse space. One of his first tasks will be to shrink the operation to current demand without impairing the company’s ability to ramp up when online sales growth resumes.
He will also have to navigate continuing labor unrest at Amazon warehouses. An upstart union earlier this year won the right to represent workers at a fulfillment center in New York, a result Amazon is challenging. The company is also under pressure from politicians for its fast pace of work and injury rates that are higher than some rivals in warehousing.