Amazon’s consumer chief to jump to logistics startup Flexport as CEO

By Jeffrey Dastin and Akash Sriram

(Reuters) – Dave Clark, the Amazon.com Inc executive who built a delivery arm to rival major cargo companies, will join logistics technology startup Flexport as chief executive in September, he said on Wednesday in a LinkedIn post.

Amazon announced last week that Clark planned to leave his role as CEO of its worldwide consumer business on July 1.

The move will place Clark at the helm of a company vying to become one of the biggest supply-chain and logistics platforms globally, a mantle not unlike the one held by Amazon.

Both Flexport and Amazon sell shipping services to e-commerce merchants, although the startup focuses on bringing overseas factory products to closer warehouses, whereas its larger peer coordinates delivery to shoppers’ doorsteps.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said Clark simply wanted a new job, when asked about his departure at a Bloomberg technology summit on Wednesday. “I don’t begrudge him at all,” he said.

Marc Wulfraat, president of logistics consultancy MWPVL International Inc, said there did not appear to be significant overlap between the two companies.

In his LinkedIn post, Clark said Flexport was “tackling the most complicated piece of the supply chain: the global cross-border movement of goods. It is an area where few technology companies have dared to tread because of the vast array of regulatory rules, intimidating geographical distances, and siloed network of providers.”

Clark earlier said he left Amazon with a multi-year plan in place to manage inflationary challenges and wanted to get back to building. Amazon has vowed to cut costs after a period of over-expansion, which on Wednesday Jassy defended as having been the right move to help with customer deliveries.

Ryan Petersen, Flexport’s current chief, said in a Twitter post that he and Clark will be co-CEOs for six months from Sept. 1, after which Petersen will become executive chairman. Clark joins Flexport’s board as well, he said.

In February, Flexport more than doubled its valuation to $8 billion after a funding round led by venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and MSD Partners.

It expects revenue of close to $5 billion this year, Petersen said.

(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and Jeffrey Dastin in Palo Alto, Calif.; Editing by Devika Syamnath, David Gregorio and Bill Berkrot)