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The second-most powerful Jeff in Amazon is leaving the organization.
Jeff Wilke, CEO of Amazon's global business division, is expected to retire in the first quarter of 2021, the company revealed in a regulatory filing on Friday.
Wilke manages a variety of Amazon's high-priority business lines and has been considered a possible successor to CEO Jeff Bezos. The Pittsburgh native (and Steelers fan) joined the organization in 1999 and helped develop Amazon's distribution operations into the current state of play. In 2016, he was in charge of the global consumer sector of the firm.
During a memo to the workers on Friday, he said that it was time for me to take time to pursue personal interests that have taken their back seat for over two decades.
According to The Wall Street Journal, he said that he was concentrating on planning Amazon for the coming holiday shopping season.
Bezos told the workers in an email that Wilke had set up a business to thrive in his absence, referring to him as a "guardian."
The legacy and influence of Jeff will live long after he leaves, Bezos wrote. He's just one of those men for whom Amazon will be absolutely unrecognizable.
Wilke is one of the top Amazon execs who have recently announced they are leaving the company. Brad Porter, vice president of robotics, revealed last week that he is leaving to join the AI group.
Peter Vosshall, a respected Amazon Web Services engineer, retired in February, and Paul Viola, Amazon Air Division, also left earlier this year.
Dave Clark, Amazon's senior vice president for retail operations, will replace Wilke. According to last year's Bloomberg profile, Clark has a reputation for visiting Amazon warehouses to determine if employees have worked hard enough, which won him the nickname "The Sniper."
