Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has become the first tech company to have a woman at an important position after it appointed Maria Renz as the technical advisor as the CEO. Reportedly, Renz has become Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s ‘shadow’ after being associated with the company for over 15 years. She will be taking over from Jay Marine, the Kindle Vice President, who served as a shadow for two years.
Marine would now be looking at the Amazon Instant Video arm in Europe. According to the LinkedIn profile of Renz, she has been appointed in April 2015.
The position is an important one in Amazon, and the past shadows have been associated with some projects that are major revenue generators in the company. The role involves working closely with Bezos, apart from being a backup in major technical decisions. The Amazon Web Series company head, Andy Jassy, was a successful shadow, and the role was also held by the developer of Amazon Echo application Greg Hart.
Knowing Maria Renz
Renz is an MBA from Vanderbilt and graduated in interior design from Drexel University. She joined Amazon in 1999 and has been associated with retail business wing of the company. Renz focused on health, grocery, shoes, jewelry and also worked for Woot.com. Since 2013, she has been serving as the CEO at Amazon’s subsidiary Quidsi.
Amazon has another woman in a pivotal role Shelley Reynolds, who is the Worldwide Controller at the company. By appointing another woman to a main role is going to bring a positive message as most of the technology giants are currently having male heads and women are very few. The Silicon Valley is often touted as a male dominated sphere, and Amazon has surely broken that belief now.
Excellent Move
Amazon had come out with a diversity report in 2014, which stated that out of the total managerial strength in companies, 75% of the positions were occupied by males and only 25% female managers were there. Most technical posts are often held by men, and women need to be considered by companies too. The gender discrimination issue that hovers over the U.S. corporate sector is something that the top companies need to tackle by folowing the example set by Amazon.
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