The senior management staff of Amazon.com has changed rapidly over the last few weeks, with the company installing a number of executives from Fortune 500 companies.
In early September, chief logistics officer Jimmy Wright retired abruptly, after netting more than $7 million from selling his 75,000 shares of Amazon stock. The Seattle e-retailer promptly replaced him with Jeffrey Wilke, formerly of the pharmaceutical company Allied Signal. Wilke's mission, according to president Joseph Galli, is to raise Amazon.com "to a whole new level of productivity and excellence." As distribution continues to be ramped up, observers say Wilke will be expected to make the process as snag-free as possible.
Also last week, Amazon.com announced the hiring of Warren Jenson as its new chief financial officer. Jenson worked as an executive at NBC, where he helped develop MSNBC, and served as CFO of Delta Airlines. Jenson, who will report to ex“Black and Decker executive Galli, replaces Joy Covey, who is now chief strategic officer.
Amazon has also hired 14-year Microsoft veteran Ben Slivka as director of information technology. Slivka will report to Richard Dalzell, who once worked at Amazon's bricks-and-mortar equivalent, Wal-Mart.
