Tech

Here's who really runs Amazon — and only 2 of the top 38 execs are women

Key Points
  • Jeff Bezos has diversified his business but not his top ranks.
  • An organizational chart viewed by CNBC shows only two women at the VP level or higher reporting directly to one of the company's CEOs.
  • Amazon appears to be making an effort to have more female leaders.
Getty Images | Alex Wong

It's a big week for Amazon.

Cyber Monday and the mass of online shoppers brought another record high in Amazon's stock price, while in Las Vegas, the company's cloud computing business kicked off its annual re:Invent conference.

Amazon's 2017 rally lifted Jeff Bezos' net worth past $100 billion on Friday, and he now towers over Bill Gates and Warren Buffett on the list of the world's richest people.

With so much going on inside Amazon, including the hunt for a second headquarters location, CNBC decided it was a good time to find out who are the power players at this sprawling company.

We tracked down an organization chart, which is available internally but not to the public.

One immediately noticeable fact is that Amazon, like so much of the tech universe, is a company run by men. Specifically white men.

In marketplace, Prime and AWS, or what Bezos likes to call the three pillars of the business, there are 37 people under the CEO who report directly to him — or are one layer removed — with at least the title of vice president. Only two of them are women.

'Simply right'

That theme will be clearly on display at re:Invent. Andy Jassy is CEO of the cloud unit and only one of the 15 most senior people below him is a woman.

Amazon appears to be making an effort to fix this problem. As Recode reported last month, a growing number of women are leading important parts of the company. They include Toni Reid with Alexa, Stephenie Landry in Prime Now and Jennifer Cast at Amazon Books. The company also has technical advisors, who shadow the unit CEOs and attend all of their meetings for training purposes. Currently, two of the three are women.

Still, the numbers are vastly underwhelming for a company that makes diversity part of its leadership principles. In fact, Bezos wrote in a letter last year that diversity and inclusion are not just good for business, but "simply right." In the list below, there are no African-Americans and three people of Asian descent.

Amazon didn't respond to a request for comment.

Most people on the list have spent years, if not decades, at the company. Jassy along with Jeff Wilke, CEO of the consumer group, and Jeff Blackburn, who runs the video and ads businesses, have been at Amazon since its early days. Dave Clark, who runs retail operations, and Greg Greeley, who leads Prime, both joined the company in 1999.

There have also been more recent high-profile hires. Babak Parviz, who created Google Glass, joined Amazon in 2014 and now runs a special team called "Grand Challenge." Adam Bosworth, who left Salesforce last year, is in charge of the AWS software team. Dave Treadwell, a 27-year Microsoft veteran, joined Amazon last year as vice president of e-commerce services.

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These are the people directly reporting to Amazon's three CEOs:

Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO:

  • Jeff Wilke, CEO of worldwide consumer
  • Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon Web Services
  • Jeff Blackburn, SVP, business and corporate development
  • Dave Limp, SVP, Amazon devices, digital management
  • Diego Piacentini, SVP, international retail
  • Brian Olsavsky, SVP & CFO
  • David Zapolsky, SVP & general counsel
  • Beth Galetti, SVP, human resources
  • Jay Carney, SVP, corporate affairs
  • Jeff Helbling, VP technical advisor to CEO
Tony Hsieh, former CEO of Zappos

Jeff Wilke, CEO of worldwide consumer:

  • Dave Clark, SVP, WW operations
  • Dave Treadwell, VP, e-commerce services
  • Doug Herrington, SVP, NA retail
  • Greg Greeley, VP, WW Prime
  • Gur Kimchi, VP, Prime Air
  • Neil Lindsay, VP, worldwide marketing
  • Pat Bajari, VP and chief economist
  • Russell Grandinetti, SVP, international consumer
  • Sebastian Gunningham, SVP, Amazon marketplace
  • Steven Kessel, SVP
  • Tony Hsieh, CEO, consumer
  • Chee Chew, VP, consumer engagement
Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon Web Services.
Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Andy Jassy, AWS CEO:

  • Adam Bosworth, VP, software
  • Alex Yung, VP, AWS sales China, AWS commercial sales
  • Ariel Kelman, VP, AWS marketing
  • Babak Parviz, VP, Grand Challenge
  • Brent Jaye, VP, AWS support
  • Charlie Bell, SVP, utility computing services
  • Emmett Shear, CEO of Twitch
  • James Hamilton, VP/distinguished engineer, AWS
  • Michael Frazzini, VP, games services and studios, Lumberyard Engine
  • Mike Clayville, VP, WW sales & BD AWS
  • Peter DeSantis, VP, infrastructure
  • Scott Wiltamuth, VP, AWS dev & management tools
  • Stephen Schmidt, chief info sec officer, AWS
  • Teresa Carlson, VP, worldwide public sector
  • Werner Vogels, VP and CTO
Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon