After years of working almost exclusively on long-term projects and pushing day-to-day management to his deputies, Bezos, 56, has turned back to the here-and-now problems facing Amazon, as the giant retailer grapples with a surge of demand, labour unrest and supply chain challenges brought on by the coronavirus
Jeff Bezos, chief executive of Amazon, in Seattle, Aug. 25, 2017. Bezos has returned to day-to-day management of the company during the coronavirus crisis.(Kyle Johnson/The New York Times)
SEATTLE — At the end of February, Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive, and his girlfriend, Lauren Sanchez, were in France discussing climate change with President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace and celebrating atop the Eiffel Tower with designer Diane von Furstenberg. Days later, paparazzi spotted the couple grabbing dinner at Carbone in New York.
By late March, he had decamped to his ranch in West Texas, focusing on Amazon as the coronavirus pandemic spread across the United States.
After years of working almost exclusively on long-term projects and pushing day-to-day management to his deputies, Bezos, 56, has turned back to the here-and-now problems facing Amazon, the company said, as the giant retailer grapples with a surge of demand, labor unrest and supply chain challenges brought on by the coronavirus.
He is joining daily calls to help make decisions about inventory and testing, as well as how and when — down to the minute — Amazon responds to public criticism. He has talked to government officials. And in April, for the first time in years, he made a publicized visit to one of Amazon’s warehouses.
“For now, my own time and thinking continues to be focused on COVID-19 and how Amazon can help while we’re in the middle of it,” Bezos wrote to shareholders last week.
©2019 New York Times News Service