Amazon's Consumer Chief Is Jumping Ship To Head This Logistics Startup

Amazon.com, Inc’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) consumer chief Dave Clark is all set to become the CEO of Flexport, a technology platform for global logistics.

What Happened: Flexport said Clark will assume his new role on Sept. 1 and will serve as co-CEO for a period of six months along with the current chief and founder, Ryan Petersen.

Petersen will transition to the role of an executive chair after this, according to a company statement.

“Dave helped scale Amazon into the technology and supply chain juggernaut it is today. He is a builder and an entrepreneur at heart, with the leadership experience that will shepherd Flexport into the most exciting phase of our journey,” said Flexport on Clark’s appointment.

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Why It Matters: Amazon said in a recent regulatory filing that Clark was resigning effective July 1.

Clark said on Twitter that it was “fun” to come to work at Amazon for the last 23 years and to “invent cool, amazing things for customers." 

I've had an incredible time at Amazon but it’s time for me to build again. It's what drives me. To all I've had the honor of working with: thank you for making it so much fun to come to work every day for 23 years to invent cool, amazing things for customers.

Email to team below pic.twitter.com/c8Ao46VvaJ

— Dave Clark (@davehclark) June 3, 2022

In April, it was reported that Amazon was planning on blocking certain keywords linked to unions on its internal messaging app like “Union,” “Living Wage,” and “Freedom.”

The Intercept reporter Ken Klippenstein tweeted Congress cited his report on the keyword blocking and demanded documents from the e-commerce retailer. Clark’s resignation followed soon after.

Yesterday, Congress demanded documents from Amazon citing my reporting focusing on CEO Dave Clark.

Today, Clark announced he's resigning https://t.co/uigU7i1XJ2

— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) June 3, 2022

Clark received backlash in March for his tweets against Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). In the same month, the then Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos had asked company officials to aggressively push back against criticism by Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

Price Action: On Wednesday, Amazon shares closed 1.5% lower at $121.20 in regular trading, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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Photo courtesy: Flexport