Amazon is one of the largest technology companies in the world, ranked with Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, and Apple. As of Dec. 2021, women made up 31.4% of U.S. corporate employees, up 1.4% from 2019, according to data released by Amazon. Black employees make up 7.2%, up from 5.4%. They also make up 3.8% of senior leaders, up from 1.9%.
In 2019, Amazon announced that the company wanted to double the number of Black directors and vice presidents and increase the number of women in senior technical jobs by 30%.
"Representation matters," a recent company press release said. "We track the representation of women and underrepresented communities because we know that diversity helps us build better teams that better represent our global customer base.
As part of Amazon's efforts for more inclusivity in the company, Alicia Boler Davis was appointed as senior vice president of Global Customer Fulfillment in 2020. She is the first Black woman to become a senior vice president in the company’s 26-year history.
Prior, she held various executive positions at General Motors Company, where she spent nearly 25 years. During this time she received the Women of Color STEM Conference Technologist of the Year Award.
“We can never overestimate the impact we can have on young people considering STEM careers,” Boler-Davis said in her 2014 acceptance speech. “While many companies here are fierce competitors in the marketplace, the advancement of STEM education is one area where we are best served by working together.”
Amazon’s 840,000-person workforce consists of over 25% Black people, many of whom work in global fulfillment, which consists of hundreds of fulfillment sites around the world.
Boler Davis has responsibility for Amazon Fulfillment Technologies, the team that builds the technical solutions. In addition, she leads the vast network of customer service operations and technology, as well as the sustainability, product assurance, real estate, construction, and procurement organizations.
Boler Davis has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Northwestern University, a master’s degree in engineering science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, an MBA from Indiana University, and an honorary doctorate of engineering from Rensselaer.
In 2018, she was named one of "The Most Powerful Female Engineers" by Business Insider, and was honored as "Black Engineer of the Year" at the BEYA STEM Conference hosted by Career Communications Group. In 2020 and 2021, she was named one of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women.
