Flexport Clears Out Executives After Clark’s Resignation as CEO

Flexport founder Ryan Petersen is cleaning house after Dave Clark, a former top executive at Amazon. com, abruptly resigned as chief executive of the freight forwarder following disagreements over the direction of the business and spending on new operations. 

The digital-focused freight forwarder on Thursday let go at least six executives hired by Clark, including Teresa Carlson, who joined Flexport as president and chief commercial officer in January after previous senior executive roles at Microsoft and Amazon, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Human-resources executive Darcie Henry, operations executive Tim Collins, public-relations executive Kelly Cheeseman and product executive Adrienne Wilhoit were also let go, according to the person familiar with the matter, as well as another executive, Jiten Behl, who joined the company from electric-vehicle startup Rivian Automotive.

Flexport confirmed those executives are no longer with the company. 

Clark, who oversaw the expansion of Amazon’s sprawling logistics network and was head of the e-commerce giant’s consumer business when he left the company last year, resigned from Flexport on Wednesday just a year after joining the company. He initially joined Petersen as co-chief executive before taking over as the sole leader in March.

Clark resigned from San Francisco-based Flexport after the board asked him to step down for how much he increased company spending without increasing revenue, according to a person familiar with the matter. 

Clark said in an interview that he had been working with Petersen on a plan to dramatically reduce the company’s spending through the end of the year and in 2024 and he felt they were “directionally aligned.”

Clark had made a flurry of executive hires at the company over the past year, including bringing in many former Amazon leaders, as he sought to extend Flexport’s nuts-and-bolts freight operations deeper into a factory-to-door distribution service. 

Flexport in May acquired the logistics operations of e-commerce platform Shopify,

The company plans to continue to pursue the end-to-end logistics model and to move forward with its investment in Deliverr, the person familiar with the matter said. 

Flexport in January cut about 20% of its global workforce, or more than 600 workers, as the company coped with falling shipping demand and repositioned its operations to offer more supply-chain services. The company has since hired several hundred software engineers.

Clark has hired political consultants to advise him on a potential 2026 run for governor of Texas, where he resides, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. 

Clark said he respected Petersen’s decision to take back control of Flexport as the company’s founder. “If he wants to come back, I’m going to get out of his way,” he said.

Write to Liz Young at [email protected]