• Jeff Blackburn, Amazon's senior vice president of business development and a 23-year veteran of the company, has decided to move on from the company after a year's sabbatical.
In a note posted to the company's intranet, Blackburn wrote that he was not retiring, and would have news about his next venture soon. Founder-chairman Jeff Bezos said that Blackburn “has kept me in the loop on his next chapter, and I can assure you it’s a very exciting one! … I predict that Jeff will be every bit as amazing in his new role as he’s been in all his roles at Amazon."
Blackburn's departure is just the latest in a series of moves in Amazon's leadership ranks. Bezos announced that he would be leaving the CEO's office and transitioning to the chairman's role, succeeded by Andy Jassy, who has been running Amazon Web Services. And Jeff Wilke, Amazon’s Worldwide Consumer CEO, is leaving, to be succeeded by Dave Clark, the former head of worldwide operations.
In his posting, Blackburn wrote: "The 'too many Jeff’s' bug that’s been bothering many of you for two decades has been fixed! Over the years, we’ve always had multiple Jeff’s on s-team - Jeff Wilke, Jeff B, myself, and for a time Jeff Holden … Wilke’s retirement meant one less Jeff, and today, I’m taking it down to just the original."
