AWS taps Amazon's global operations leader as new CFO

“I’m excited to share many of the skills I learned in operations with the AWS team,” says AWS’ new CFO, John Felton.

Global cloud leader Amazon Web Services has a new chief financial officer in Amazon's former operations and logistic leader John Felton, who's been with AWS' parent company for nearly two decades.

"Operations has always been about how we get to world class in safety, speed, cost, quality, and innovation, and what we accomplished together in 2023 was awesome to see," said Felton in a message to staff. "I'm excited to share many of the skills I learned in operations with the AWS team."

Felton was previously Amazon's top logistics leader as senior vice president of Worldwide Operations. AWS' new CFO first joined Amazon 2004 as a senior financial analyst. He quickly rose through the ranks over the years to become vice president of finance for Worldwide Operations by 2012.

"Most recently, John and his teams have led the successful work to regionalise our US network, both improving our delivery speeds for customers and reducing our cost to serve," said Doug Herrington, Amazon's worldwide retail leader, in a message to employees.

Felton (pictured) will report directly to AWS CEO Adam Selipsky. Felton is part of Amazon CEO Andy Jassy's S-team, a group of top executives from every area of the company who strategize with Jassy.

Last year, Felton said his team successfully lowered Amazon's cost to serve for the first time in years, while driving its fastest delivery speeds ever for Prime customers.

"2023 highlighted so many new opportunities for us. I am particularly excited for the next set of innovations around inventory placement, ultra-fast delivery, and automation. The future is very bright," Felton said.

AWS confirmed to CRN US that AWS' current CFO, Richard Puccio, is leaving the cloud computing leader.

Felton will be replaced by Amazon's vice president of transportation, Udit Madan, who will lead worldwide operations for Amazon.

In the third quarter of 2023, AWS generated total revenue of $23.1bn, representing a year-over-year growth rate of 12 per cent.

AWS currently owns 32 per cent share of the global cloud services market, ranking No. 1 in the world ahead of Microsoft, at 23 percent share, and Google, who owns 11 percent share.

Amazon is set to report the financial results of its fourth quarter 2023 on 1 February, 2024.