MIT
Forefront

Jeff Wilke retired as Amazon’s chief executive officer of Worldwide Consumer in February 2021. During the preceding 21 years, he led Amazon’s retail and third-party stores, operations, marketing, Prime, and technology teams. Wilke oversaw the deployment of techniques from lean manufacturing to create the infrastructure and technology that became Amazon Prime. His teams launched Prime Video, Prime Now, Prime Day, Amazon Fashion, and many other customer-facing innovations. Wilke helped create Amazon’s corporate culture and mechanisms, including Amazon’s Leadership Principles. He is chairman and cofounder of Re:Build Manufacturing, which aims to integrate new technologies into conventional manufacturing businesses to accelerate growth and performance. Over the coming decades, the company expects to create new factories in the United States that will employ thousands of Americans. Wilke earned a BSE in chemical engineering, summa cum laude, from Princeton, and an MBA and SM in engineering from the MIT Leaders for Global Operations program. He currently serves on the board of Code.org.