The 5 Biggest AWS Executive Departures In 2022

From AWS’ global CMO to a key AWS Marketplace leader, here are five Amazon Web Services executives who left the company this year.

5 AWS Executives Who Departed This Year

The worldwide leader in cloud computing has lost several key executives in 2022, including some to cloud rival Google Cloud.

Amazon Web Services has witnessed a transition in leadership over the past few years including its CEO Andy Jassy and worldwide channel chief Doug Yeum who both departed to join its parent company Amazon.

In 2022, AWS lost its global chief marketing officer, general manager of AWS Outposts and a key innovator for its popular AWS Marketplace.

[Related: Nutanix Execs Talk VMware-Broadcom, Layoffs As Stock Spikes]

AWS Hits $79 Billion Run Rate

Although the Seattle-based cloud giant lost some big executives in 2022, AWS’ sales growth continues to break records thanks to a break-neck innovation strategy and the ever-growing demand for cloud services.

In AWS’ recent second fiscal quarter, the company generated a record-breaking $19.74 billion in revenue, representing an increase of 33 percent year over year.

AWS also reporting operating income of $5.72 billion for its second quarter, up 36 percent year over year.

In terms of global cloud market share, AWS still remains the clearcut leader in cloud computing.

Enterprise spending on cloud infrastructure services reached nearly $55 billion in the second quarter of 2022 with AWS being the worldwide leader by wining 34 percent share of the market during the quarter, according to data from IT research firm Synergy Research Group.

Microsoft Azure’s cloud market share stood at 21 percent share, while Google Cloud placed third with 10 percent share of the global cloud infrastructure services market, Synergy Research Group said.

CRN breaks down five big AWS executives who left the $79 billion cloud computing giant in 2022.

Rachel Thornton

AWS Position: Global Chief Marketing Officer

Years At AWS: 8

AWS lost its worldwide chief marketing officer Rachel Thornton this month.

Thornton was vice president and chief marketing officer for worldwide marketing at AWS. She became CMO for the company in 2020, five years after moving from Amazon Prime to AWS. Thornton was director of global field marketing, partner marketing and events from 2015 until her CMO role.

Prior to Amazon, the longtime IT veteran held top marketing roles at the likes of Salesforce and Cisco Systems.

Where Rachel Thornton Landed:

Thornton has been hired by MessageBird, a cloud communication platform company, as its new chief marketing officer.

Joshua Burgin

AWS Position: General Manager for AWS Outposts

Years At AWS: 7

Joshua Burgin was tasked with leading AWS launch into the on-premise world with AWS Outposts, the cloud company’s infrastructure solution for data center, edge and other on-premises locations.

Burgin helped launch Outposts in over 65 countries and lead worldwide engineering, product management, marketing and business development for Outposts. He started his IT career with parent company Amazon as a senior systems engineer in 1997.

However, it is key to note that Burgin left AWS after a private settlement with a female employee who accused him of discrimination and harassment.

Where Joshua Burgin Landed:

Burgin joined AWS technology partner VMware this year. He is now vice president of Product and Technical Strategy for Tanzu, aiming to help customers build, run and manage cloud-native, microservices-based applications on Kubernetes.

Stephen Orban

AWS Position: Vice President of AWS Marketplace, Partner Engineering, ISVs

Years At AWS: 8

Stephen Orban left AWS this year as a leader for the company’s popular AWS Marketplace as well as partner engineering and independent software vendors (ISVs.)

He was tasked with hiring engineers, project managers, partner managers and business developers for the AWS Marketplace as well as other business groups. He was responsible for leading and building AWS Data Exchange, a service launched in 2019 that made it easy for customers to find, subscribe to and use third-party data in the cloud via the Marketplace.

Prior to AWS, Orban was CTO and CIO at Dow Jones, responsible for managing the company’s technology department.

Where Stephen Orban Landed:

Orban is set to join AWS could rival Google Cloud in 2022 in a senior leadership role, tasked with develop strategy and programs for customers migrating to Google Cloud.

Duncan Lennox

AWS Position: General Manager of Elastic File System (EFS)

Years At AWS: 4

Another AWS executive who left to join a cloud rival is Amazon Elastic File System leader Duncan Lennox.

Lennox led Amazon’s Elastic File System group for the past several years, which is the company’s cloud storage solution that allows Amazon EC2 instance, AWS Lambda functions and containers to share access to a fully managed file system. EFS is at the heart of the AWS platform and is used in a wide array of applications.

Prior to AWS, Lennox was co-founder and CEO of Qstream, a mobile sales enablement and analytics company.

Where Duncan Lennox Landed:

Lennox has been hired by AWS rival Google as its new vice president of engineering for site reliability and consumer platforms.

Liz Coddington

AWS Position: Vice President of AWS Finance

Years At AWS: 6

AWS lost its vice president of AWS Services Finance Liz Coddington this year, who was tasked with handling the cloud giant’s finances.

“My time at Amazon has exceeded my expectations and the scale, growth, and pace of innovation at which AWS operates is unparalleled,” said Coddington in a LinkedIn post in June.

Coddington spent over five years of director of AWS Finance, followed by approximately one year of vice president. Prior to AWS, she held executive financial roles at Netflix and was CFO of Walmart.com.

Where Liz Coddington Landed:

Coddington became the new chief financial officer for interactive fitness company Peloton.