Amazon Echo Dot speaker
CNBC | Richard Washington
Amazon has misplaced two high-profile executives who helped oversee the corporate’s {hardware} efforts.
Gregg Zehr, president of Amazon’s {hardware} analysis and building staff, referred to as Lab126, has retired, the corporate showed to CNBC. Zehr is credited with inventing the vastly a hit Kindle e-reader.
Tom Taylor, senior vp of Amazon Alexa and a member of CEO Andy Jassy’s elite S-Crew, may be retiring, Amazon stated. Each Taylor and Zehr spent smartly over a decade on the corporate.
“We’ve robust succession plans for all companies, and each those positions have been backfilled with robust interior leaders a while in the past,” an Amazon spokesperson stated in a remark.
Industry Insider previous reported on Zehr and Taylor’s departures.
For Jassy, it marks the most recent high-profile exits at a time when Amazon is staring down a large number of demanding situations, from hovering inflation to slowing gross sales. Heather MacDougall, Amazon’s administrative center well being and protection leader, departed the corporate in September. In July, public coverage leader Jay Carney left to enroll in Airbnb, and 23-year Amazon veteran Dave Clark resigned as retail leader a month later.
Two distinguished Black leaders — operations government Dave Bozeman and Alicia Boler-Davis, senior vp of world buyer achievement — additionally introduced their departures in June.
Amazon stated it nonetheless maintains excessive retention charges. The common tenure for vice presidents is set 10 years, and for senior vice presidents it’s “for much longer,” the spokesperson stated.
The chief exodus additionally comes as Jassy has been reining in spending around the corporate. Amazon has carried out a hiring freeze for company retail roles and has discontinued a lot of tasks in fresh months, starting from its Care telehealth carrier to its Glow video-calling projector.
WATCH: Amazon freezes company hiring in retail trade
