Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world, has appointed a Chinese-American woman senior executive of his company as his "shadow adviser" for the next two years.
Bezos announced the appointment of Wei Gao to this highly coveted post, which has been a stepping stone to higher senior management positions in the multibillion-dollar e-commerce company.
Gao's official position as Bezos' shadow adviser is Vice-President, Technical Advisor to CEO at Amazon. She was appointed to this position in July. She replaced Jeffrey Helbling, who was named shadow adviser in early 2017.
Another Amazon senior executive, Jeff Wilke, Amazon's CEO of worldwide retail, recently named Yunyan Wang, a Chinese-American, as his newest shadow.
As shadow adviser, it will be Gao's job to accompany Bezos on all of his meetings and to travel with him on his domestic and foreign trips. One of Bezos' first shadows said his job is to serve as a receptacle for Bezos "for any of the 19 ongoing activities in his brain that didn't have a place in the normal organization."
Maria Renz, who became Bezos' first shadow adviser in April 2015, said her formal job description was to help Jeff be the best CEO that he can be. She is now vice president of Amazon's delivery experience unit.
Bezos seems to have borrowed the idea for having a shadow adviser from that famous, former Intel CEO Andy Grove. Bezos instituted the shadow role at Amazon in the late 1990s. It was said he initially filled the position with an executive whose company was acquired by Amazon but was struggling to find his niche in Amazon.
Gao is a 13-year Amazon veteran who most recently served as a vice president of forecasting. She joined Amazon in April 2005.
She's held the following posts at Amazon: Vice President, Forecasting; Director of Software Development, Forecasting; Director of Software Development, Network Topology Optimization; Sr. Manager, Software Development, Inventory Planning & Control; Senior Technical Program Manager for Amazon Kindle and Senior Technical Program Manager in eCommerce Platform Group.
Wang's position as Wilke's shadow is Technical Advisor to Jeff Wilke, CEO of WW Consumer. She was appointed to this post in May. She joined Amazon in July 203 as Lead Product, Marketing, and Operations for Amazon Marketplace Seller Recruitment and Development.
