Amazon's Europe head to leave at year-end

Amazon has confirmed that Xavier Garambois, the head of its European operations, is stepping down with effect end 2020. Garambois, whose official title is Vice President of Europe Consumer Business, runs the tech giant's retail and consumer-facing operations across Europe, a position he has held for the last eight years. Prior to that he was Managing Director of Amazon France. He will be replaced by Jorrit van der Meulen, Amazon's Head of Devices International.

Garambois's departure comes amid Amazon's ongoing expansion in Europe—just last week the company had announced that by the end of 2020 it would have created 10,000 new permanent jobs in the UK alone, increasing its permanent workforce there by a third, along with another 20,000 seasonal jobs.

This is just the latest in a string of high-level executive departures, most of them with similarly long timelines and successors from elsewhere in Amazon's businesses already lined up. Earlier, in June, Amazon confirmed that its UK country head, Doug Gurr, would be stepping down later in the year, and last month, Jeff Wilke, CEO of its Worldwide Consumer business, said he plans to retire early in 2021.

Despite the senior leadership turnover, Amazon said that it still has good retention and continuity of leadership. "Like with any company, people leave from time to time for personal or professional reasons - many return to the company," a company spokesperson said.