Amazon’s retail chief will retire next year
In a memo to employees, Wilke said he was not leaving for another a job, and that he’d retire in the first quarter of 2021.
“I don’t have a new job, and am as happy with and proud of Amazon as ever,” Wilke, 53, wrote.
He will be succeeded by Dave Clark, who currently serves as senior vice president of the company’s worldwide operations, Wilke wrote. (Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
In his own memo to staff, Bezos described Wilke as his “tutor” and touted the executive’s contributions to Amazon.
“Jeff’s legacy and impact will live on long after he departs” Bezos wrote. “He is simply one of those people without whom Amazon would be completely unrecognizable.”
Amazon declined to make Bezos, Wilke or Clark available to comment.
Wilke joined Amazon in 1999 to oversee global operations for the fast-growing e-commerce company. In 2016, he became chief executive of its Worldwide Consumer business, where he oversees Amazon’s growing fleet of brick-and-mortar stores, as well as its online Prime membership service.
Wilke has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Princeton University and a MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
