Dave Clark, chief executive officer of Amazon.com Inc.’s Worldwide Consumer business, will join logistics startup Flexport Inc. in the same role. 

The news was reported by Forbes today and confirmed by Flexport. It comes a few days after Amazon announced that Clark will resign from his role as CEO of its Worldwide Consumer business on July 1 to pursue other opportunities. The business manages the company’s e-commerce platform and sophisticated supply chain, as well as key components of its growth strategy such as the Prime subscription program.

Clark joined Amazon in 1999 as an operations manager. Over the next two decades, the executive held various leadership roles at Amazon’s  supply chain division before becoming CEO of the Worldwide Consumer business in August 2020. 

Clark played a key role in building the company’s sophisticated e-commerce supply chain. In April, Amazon detailed that it had more than 600 fulfillment centers and north of 70,000 delivery vehicles at the end of 2021. During his tenure at the company, Clark also oversaw the rapid growth of Amazon’s Prime subscription program, which has more than 200 million subscribers worldwide. 

The executive will become co-CEO of Flexport on Sept. 1 alongside Ryan Petersen, the startup’s founder and current CEO. Clark is expected to become sole chief executive of the startup six months later. Petersen will become executive chairman.

Founded in 2013, Flexport provides a logistics platform that companies use to order merchandise from suppliers and manage shipments. The startup received a valuation of more than $8 billion earlier this year after a $935 million funding round that was led by Andreessen Horowitz and MSD Partners. Flexport has raised about $2 billion in total funding since launch.

One of Flexport’s main focus areas is helping companies more efficiently track their supply chains. Its logistics platform can monitor shipping costs and other business metrics, as well as detect issues such as a shipping delay. A company’s supply chain team can consult the data provided by Flexport to find opportunities to increase efficiency.

Flexport’s platform has proven highly popular in the enterprise. The startup closed 2021 with $3.3 billion in revenue and expects to generate sales of $5 billion this year. Moreover, Flexport achieved profitability during the first quarter.

“Why am I transitioning to executive chairman when things are going so well? It’s simple: Every day the scale of the opportunity for Flexport grows bigger,” Petersen wrote in a blog post. “We know that even when we hit $5 billion in revenue, we’ll still hold less than 1% market share in all of our markets. And we’ve got customers asking us to add more products and services every day.”

The extensive supply chain and e-commerce expertise that Clark is bringing to Flexport will benefit the startup’s plan to become a bigger player in the logistics market. Clark told Forbes that he’s looking to establish the startup as the “most important company in global supply chain, and in technology across global supply chain.” 

More than half of the approximately $2 billion in funding that Flexport has raised from investors is reportedly still in the bank. The capital could make it easier for the startup to pursue new growth opportunities under its new leadership. 

Photo: Amazon