During his time at Amazon, Clark helped build and oversee the company’s sprawling logistics network of warehouses, delivery trucks, planes and cargo ships, which helped it expedite shipping times and dominate the online retail market.
His departure, however, comes as Amazon faces several new challenges, including slowing growth, mounting regulatory scrutiny and a growing number of organizing efforts among warehouse workers. In particular, the consumer segment has been under strain, while its AWS cloud services business continues to generate huge profits.
Andy Jassy, who took over as CEO of Amazon last summer from founder Jeff Bezos, said in a statement with the most recent earnings report that “the pandemic and subsequent war in Ukraine have brought unusual growth and challenges.” Jassy also noted the company continues to “work through ongoing inflationary and supply chain pressures.”
In his note to Amazon staff on Friday, Clark alluded to some of those challenges and expressed confidence in the team to push past them.
“We have a great leadership team across the Consumer business that is ready to take on more as the company evolves past the customer experience challenges we took on during the Covid-19 pandemic,” he wrote. “We also have a solid multi-year plan to fight the inflationary challenges we are facing in 2022.”
Clark has publicly defended the company amid the unionization efforts and scrutiny of its treatment of workers. He made headlines last year for taking a swipe at Bernie Sanders on Twitter after the senator hosted a rally in support of Amazon workers seeking to unionize at an Alabama facility.
In his note Friday, Clark did not mention any new role he may take after Amazon.
“For some time, I have discussed my intent to transition out of Amazon with my family and others close to me, but I wanted to ensure the teams were setup for success,” Clark wrote. “I feel confident that time is now.”
