Amazon taps new CEO of worldwide stores business
Amazon has named Doug Herrington CEO of worldwide Amazon stores business.
Herrington follows Dave Clark, who announced his resignation early this month, effective July 1. Clark will become CEO at Flexport, a company that makes supply chain software, on Sept. 1.
Andy Jassy, Amazon president and CEO, sent the following message on Wednesday morning in a post on Amazon’s website, announcing Herrington's appointment:
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“I’m excited to share that Doug Herrington will become the new CEO of our worldwide Amazon stores business (formerly known as “consumer”). Doug has been at Amazon for 17 years. He joined the company in 2005 to build out our consumables business, launched AmazonFresh in 2007 and in 2015, took on leading all of our North American consumer business. Doug and I have worked together on S-team since 2011. He is a builder of great teams and brings substantial retail, grocery, demand generation, product development and Amazon experience to bear. He’s also a terrific inventor for customers, thinks big, has thoughtful vision around how category management and ops can work well together, is a unifier, is highly curious and an avid learner. I think Doug will do great things for customers and employees alike, and I look forward to working with him in this leadership role.”
Jassy said that as part of the organizational change, Amazon’s stores operations organization will be united under a single leader, John Felton, who will lead Operations.
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“John has been at Amazon for nearly 18 years, spending 12 years in retail and operations finance leadership roles. In 2018, John moved to worldwide operations to become the vice president of global customer fulfillment; and in 2019, he took over the newly formed global delivery services group, encompassing global import/export, Amazon logistics and our last-mile delivery services. He joined S-team in September 2020,” Jassy said.“
“John has strong end-to-end knowledge of our fulfillment network, operates with an important mix of strategic thinking and a command of the details that matter most in our network, is right a lot, and is a strong team builder who is dedicated to making Amazon a great place to work for our employees,” he said.
“John will report to Doug, as will Russ Grandinetti (international stores), Christine Beauchamp (North America stores), Tony Hoggett (physical stores), Dave Treadwell (e-commerce foundation), Neil Lindsay (pharmacy/AmazonCare/health care), Dharmesh Mehta (selling partner Sservices), Peter Larsen (Buy with Prime) and Pat Bajari (chief economist),” Jassy said.
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“This is a very strong and experienced leadership team. I remain very optimistic about our stores business, and believe we’re still in the early days of what’s possible,” Jassy said.
“It’s worth remembering that Amazon currently only represents about 1% of the worldwide retail market segment share, and 85% of that worldwide market segment share still resides in physical stores,” he said. “If you believe that equation will change over time (which I do), there’s a lot of potential for us as we continue to be laser focused on providing the best customer experience (broadest selection, low prices, fast and convenient delivery) while working on our cost structure to have the right long-term business.”