Former Amazon executive Dave Clark to resign as Flexport CEO

By Lisa Baertlein

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Former Amazon executive Dave Clark on Wednesday announced that he will resign as CEO of U.S. logistics startup Flexport about a year after he joined the company.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Clark is preparing for a potential run for Texas governor, a topic he did not address in his statement.

Clark joined the company as co-CEO in September 2022 after a long career at Amazon.com (NASDAQ:). He became sole CEO in March, when founder Ryan Petersen became executive chairman.

“As the founder, (Petersen) expressed a desire to have a leader take the company to the next level … I came to Flexport to do big things and that’s where I believe we were headed,” Clark wrote in a post on the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter.

Clark, best known for building Amazon’s sprawling warehouse and delivery network, said he was preparing to launch a Flexport product for small businesses on Thursday. He said he resigned after a conversation in which Petersen expressed his desire to return to focusing on growth in Flexport’s core freight business.

“I feel that he is best suited to lead the company in that direction,” Clark said. “Founders have the right to change their mind.”

Flexport confirmed the executive changes and declined to elaborate.

Flexport is one of the most valuable U.S. logistics startups with $2.3 billion in funding so far.

In June, Flexport completed its purchase of Shopify (NYSE:) Logistics, a move it said added e-commerce fulfillment, business-to-business distribution and last mile delivery to the company’s portfolio of services.