Amazon executives overseeing Alexa, hardware group depart the company

Amazon has mislaid 2 high-profile executives who helped oversee the company's hardware efforts.

Gregg Zehr, president of Amazon's hardware probe and improvement group, known arsenic Lab126, has retired, the institution confirmed to CNBC. Zehr is credited with inventing the hugely palmy Kindle e-reader.

Tom Taylor, elder vice president of Amazon Alexa and a subordinate of CEO Andy Jassy's elite S-Team, is besides retiring, Amazon said. Both Taylor and Zehr spent good implicit a decennary astatine the company.

"We person beardown succession plans for each businesses, and some these positions were backfilled with beardown interior leaders immoderate clip ago," an Amazon spokesperson said successful a statement.

Business Insider earlier reported connected Zehr and Taylor's departures.

For Jassy, it marks the latest high-profile exits astatine a clip erstwhile Amazon is staring down a multitude of challenges, from soaring ostentation to slowing sales. Heather MacDougall, Amazon's workplace wellness and information chief, departed the institution successful September. In July, nationalist argumentation main Jay Carney left to articulation Airbnb, and 23-year Amazon seasoned Dave Clark resigned arsenic retail main a period later.

Two salient Black leaders — operations enforcement Dave Bozeman and Alicia Boler-Davis, elder vice president of planetary lawsuit fulfillment — also announced their departures successful June.

Amazon said it inactive maintains precocious retention rates. The mean tenure for vice presidents is astir 10 years, and for elder vice presidents it is "much longer," the spokesperson said.

The enforcement exodus besides comes arsenic Jassy has been reining successful spending crossed the company. Amazon has implemented a hiring frost for firm retail roles and has discontinued a fig of projects successful caller months, ranging from its Care telehealth work to its Glow video-calling projector.

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