Steve Kessel leaves Amazon

Steve Kessel, an Amazon Inc. executive for over 20 years, has left the company. Kessel, who was a senior vice president, was a major force behind Amazon's Kindle and their brick-and-mortar store, Amazon Go. The businessman said he will now be focusing on community service and non-profit work.

Dave Clark, head of Amazon's global supply chain and logistics operations, will be taking over Kessel's role. In an email that was obtained by Geekwire, Kessel said, "It’s hard to leave something I’ve loved doing for so long, inventing alongside a fantastic group of people, but it’s a good time to make this change because of the teams and plans we have in place."

Under Kessel, Amazon's brick-and-mortar presence expanded to include 23 opened or announced Amazon Go grocery stores, 20 open or announced Amazon Books locations, 9 open or announced 4-Star stores, and multiple “Presented by Amazon” kiosks in malls. GeekWire reported that Amazon's revenue from brick-and-mortar came to 4.2 billion dollars last year. The future of the company's brick-and-mortar will be owed to this man.

Photo: Amazon newsroom