Possible successor to Jeff Bezos quits Amazon
Story highlights
Jeff Wilke's surprise departure comes as demand for Amazon deliveries has surged during the pandemic.
Jeff Wilke, a veteran Amazon executive, is set to retire from the company early next year. He has been with the company since 1999.
Wilke's surprise departure comes as demand for Amazon deliveries has surged during the pandemic.
Wilke has headed Amazon's worldwide consumer division since 2016 and was widely seen as a likely successor to Bezos.
He will be replaced in his role by Dave Clark, Amazon's current senior vice president for worldwide operations. He also joined Amazon in 1999.
Amazon is facing scrutiny from lawmakers over its competitive tactics. Bezos last month testified on Capitol Hill alongside the CEOs of Apple, Facebook and Google as part of a congressional antitrust probe.
Bezos had acknowledged then that Amazon might have improperly used third-party seller data to inform its own product decisions — a key concern over the company's approach to competition.