Amazon SVP Of Worldwide Operations Dave Clark Gets A Substantially Expanded Role

By Amit Chowdhry • Feb 8, 2020
  • Amazon’s SVP of Worldwide Operations Dave Clark has received a substantially expanded role, according to an internal organization chart obtained by Business Insider

Amazon’s SVP of Worldwide Operations Dave Clark has received a substantially expanded role, according to an internal organization chart obtained by Business Insider. Now Clark is overseeing marketing, logistics, robotics, drones, physical stores (including Whole Foods), and Prime.

Clark has been at Amazon for more than 20 years and he started out as an Operations Manager at the company back in 1999. He also worked out of Amazon’s distribution center in Campbellsville, Kentucky for two years and as a general manager at the company’s North East Fulfillment Centers for a couple of years. Then he got promoted to the regional director of fulfillment & director of engineering in 2006 and the director of the Amazon Customer Excellence system in 2008. In 2010, he was promoted to VP of North American Operations in 2010 followed by VP of Global Customer Fulfillment in 2012. About a year later, he got promoted to his current role.

Before starting work at Amazon, Clark received an MBA in Logistics and Transportation at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and a Bachelor’s degree from Auburn before that.

These responsibilities were added to his role after Steve Kessel departed Amazon. Kessel resigned late last year and most of his direct reports including VP of physical stores Dilip Kumar and Whole Foods CEO John Mackey were shifted over to Clark’s group. And the VP of Prime and marketing Neil Lindsay and VP of Prime Air Gur Kimchi were also moved to Clark’s team this year.

Kimchi reports up to VP of Robotics Strategy Brad Porter and Amazon’s head of worldwide sustainability Kara Hurst also reports to Clark’s team.

Clark specifically has 15 direct reports, including Kumar; Lindsay; Mackey; VP of global customer fulfillment Alicia Boler; VP of Amazon Transportation Services David Bozeman; Executive Assistant Janette Coleman; VP of Global Delivery Services John Felton; VP of Global Specialty Fulfillment and Worldwide Prime Now Operations Rebecca Gansert; VP of F3 (Fresh, Food, Fast) Stephanie Landry; VP of Workplace Health & Safety Heather MacDougall; VP of Supply Chain Optimization Technology Devesh Mishra; VP of Safety, Sustainability, Security & Compliance Carletta Ooton; VP/distinguished engineer of Robotics Strategy & AI Brad Porter; VP of technology and physical stores Arun Rajan; and VP of Ops Customer Experience and Delivery Experience Maria Renz.

Clark is known for his strong work ethic even when he was young. When Clark was a kid, he started helping with his parent’s business. And he learned how to drive a forklift at the young age of 12. But he is also strict when it comes to performance and earned the nickname “The Sniper” for firing unproductive warehouse workers. Clark is known for temporarily cutting ties with FedEx during the holiday season last year due to low performance.

This year, Clark has been assigned the ambitious task of reducing two-day deliveries to one-day. And he is also overseeing Amazon’s ramp-up of Amazon’s in-house delivery network including the company’s delivery trucks along with the rollout of robotics throughout the company distribution centers.

Here is a video that Amazon’s Twitter account posted in December about Clark working 21 peak holiday seasons: