Mere days after announcing plans to leave Amazon after 23 years at the company, Dave Clark has unveiled his next role — CEO of supply chain startup Flexport.
Clark’s last day as CEO of the Worldwide Consumer business at Amazon will be July 1. He’ll take the reins at Flexport a few months later on Sept. 1, 2022 and join the company’s Board at the same. For the first six months he will serve as Co-CEO alongside Flexport Founder and current CEO Ryan Peterson, who then plans to transition to the role of Executive Chairman in March 2023.
Clark was instrumental in building out Amazon’s now “legendary” (as Peterson called it) fulfillment, logistics and transportation network. “[Dave] isn’t just any executive — he is a builder and an entrepreneur at heart,” said Peterson in a series of tweets announcing the appointment. “Flexport is on its way to becoming one of the world’s most important technology platforms for supply chain and logistics. Given the scale of the opportunity ahead of us, Flexport doesn’t need another executive — we need another entrepreneur. And we couldn’t have found a more qualified and entrepreneurial leader than Dave.”
Founded in 2013, Flexport’s platform for global logistics is used by companies of all sizes, from emerging brands to Fortune 500s. In 2021, organizations used Flexport technology to move nearly $19 billion of merchandise across 112 countries, according to the company.
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“Ryan founded Flexport with the mission to make global trade easy for everyone,” said Clark in a statement. “Under his leadership over the last nine years, Flexport has grown from a digital freight forwarder to a leading technology platform for global trade. I am excited to partner with the team to architect and build a technology-powered future enabling the transparent and seamless movement of goods from raw material to end consumers anywhere in the world.”
The company received a new injection of funding in February 2022 in a Series E round that raised $935 million and was led by Andreessen Horowitz and MSD Partners, along with a strategic investment from Shopify as well as participation from a number of existing partners. With the new investment, Flexport is now valued at over $8 billion.
“Global trade is facing historic challenges, which demand innovative approaches that address both the current difficulties and more systemic issues,” said David George, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz in a statement. “Flexport’s platform, business model and data-driven insights together uniquely position the company to continue making a substantial impact on this multi-trillion-dollar industry.”
“At Shopify, we see firsthand the challenges millions of entrepreneurs face when running their businesses, with logistics being one of the most daunting complexities in commerce today,” said Bram Sugarman, Director of Product Acceleration at Shopify in a statement. “We are so inspired by the progress Flexport has made in this critical area and are excited to support them in their ambitious mission to modernize the supply chain, breaking down barriers to trade for businesses everywhere.”
