Dave Clark, Amazon’s chief consumer officer, resigns

The announcement marks the second high-profile launch in as many days in the tech world. On Wednesday, Sheryl Sandberg – one of the highest-ranking women in corporate America – announced that she was step down As chief operating officer of Facebook, the company she helped turn into a digital advertising giant.

Amazon warehouse workers suffer serious injuries at higher rates than other companies

Amazon declined to comment outside of the company’s blog and Clark’s note. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

Clark’s rising career at Amazon reflected the company’s sprawling growth; He started as Operations Manager, then moved on to a Regional General Manager, eventually overseeing the tech giant’s worldwide consumer business. When he joined the company, Amazon only had six fulfillment centers. It has since ballooned into a giant corporation, raking in $470 billion in sales last year and valuing among the elite club of trillion-dollar companies. Its operations now include online shopping, groceries, live streaming, tools and web services.

But Clark’s tenure, which began in 1999, has also been marked by a slew of legal, regulatory and labor issues that have put the spotlight on Amazon, the nation’s second-largest private employer.

Guild Payments in Bessemer, Ala. In New York, it served as the basis for a renewed labor movement that reverberated in the retail and technology sectors. Amazon workers engaged in union campaigns have called for higher wages, more benefits and better treatment of employees – including more breaks and Less intense monitoring of their daily habits. The company has more than 1,000 US warehouses.

With growing concerns about Amazon’s business conditions, including criticism from lawmakers, Clark has been quick at times to defend the company. “I often say we’re Bernie Sanders for employers, but that’s not entirely true because we actually offer a progressive workplace,” Clark said. He said in a tweet which was later deleted.

In June 2021, Clark announced Amazon’s intent to become “the best employer on Earth,” pledging in a Blog post To make Amazon a safer place to work and to ease the company’s focus on productivity metrics. The post was an update of an announcement Bezos made two months earlier in a contributor letter. But the Report It was later discovered that the infection rate of workers at Amazon in 2021 was more than twice that of workers in other warehouses.

Clark heads up Amazon’s logistics operations across Corona Virus The pandemic has brought up safety protocols to keep warehouses and deliveries in operation but also faces questions about whether the company is accurately and transparently reporting the number of cases and infection rates. In January 2021, Clark wrote a letter President Biden’s offer to help distribute coronavirus vaccines. One month later, the New York attorney general filed a lawsuit against Amazon accusing the company of “blatant disregard for health and safety requirements.”

New York sues Amazon for “blatant disregard” of health standards in warehouses

In recent years, Amazon has also become a frequent subject of congressional scrutiny. Investigators on Capitol Hill found that Amazon was among a handful of tech giants involved Anti-competitive tactics and monopoly style He called for sweeping changes to federal laws to empower regulators, according to a 2020 House inquiry that spanned 16 months and culminated in a 450-page report.

In his role as CEO of Consumer, which he began in January 2021, Clarke has overseen much of Amazon’s business, expanding his logistical and operational responsibilities to include retail and electronics. In April, Amazon CEO Andy Gacy announced that Amazon would hold back on expansion in some of those areas, including closing much of its brick-and-mortar retail footprint, due to slower growth.