Doug Herrington upped to retail CEO at Amazon

Doug Herrington

Amazon has announced the appointment of Doug Herrington as its new retail CEO.

The announcement comes several weeks after the company announced that 23-year veteran Dave Clark would step down from his role of consumer business CEO. Clark has since announced that he will be taking over as CEO of supply chain software maker Flexport on September 1.

Herrington has been with Amazon for 17 years, joining from online grocer Webvan. He subsequently led the launch of AmazonFresh in 2007, and has overseen Amazon’s North American consumer unit for more than seven years. 

Announcing the appointment, Amazon CEO Andy Jasssy sent a memo to staff: “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.”

The shakeup also sees the unification of Amazon’s Operations organisation under 18-year veteran John Felton.

There has been some controversy surrounding this latest reorganisation at Amazon, with two of its most senior Black leaders departing. Alicia Boler Davis is leaving as senior vice president of global customer fulfilment, while VP Dave Bozeman is also departing. 

Amazon has been heavily criticised in the past for a lack of diversity in its upper echelons, with it at one stage being a recurring meme that the company had more executives named Jeff than women or other underrepresented individuals.