Amazon's chief financial officer Tom Szkutak will retire next year after more than a decade with the company. Brian Olsavsky, currently v-p of finance for global consumer business, is succeeding him.
"Tom's impact over the past 12 years is evident in every part of our business," said CEO Jeff Bezos. "Under Tom's stewardship, customers have benefited from category expansion and geographical expansion, along with amazing new businesses like [Amazon Web Services] and Kindle."
Forbes noted that Szkutak, often "the lead voice on Amazon's quarterly earnings calls," has been called the online retailer's "motivational speaker" and "was known for speaking in vague terms while talking up the retailer's future business prospects."
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Kevin Nguyen, former books editor at Amazon, has joined Oyster as editorial director. On the company's blog, co-founder Willem Van Lancker noted that "we have just begun to connect the dots between our expansive library and the creation of our own editorial voice. In order to make good on this vision, we needed to find someone who had their feet both in the world of technology and publishing. We needed someone with the tenacity and passion to build something new with the experience of having done it before." He added that at Oyster, Nguyen "will lead new editorial initiatives and build out a new content brand uniquely developed for our product and readers."
In a blog post titled "Why I Joined Oyster," Nguyen wrote: "So why leave Amazon? Leaving was one of the tougher decisions I've made, but the reality is that the company has changed. As Amazon grows, it continues to move away from its core books business. The company is interested in maximizing revenue and it doesn't matter whether those dollars come from books, music, video games, or pet supplies. In fact, at Amazon, we referred to our audience as customers; at Oyster, they're readers. It's a subtle but powerful distinction; one that reinforces that Oyster is a company that wants to build a lasting relationship with people who care about reading."
