Amazon names new CFO

Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) said Tuesday it has named Warren C. Jenson as its senior vice president and chief financial officer. Jenson is the second management addition in recent days.

Shares closed at 62 7/16 Friday, well below their 52-week high of 110 5/8. Amazon has been gaining recently on a e-tail rally.

Friday, Amazon announced its vice president for logistics, Jimmy Wright, retired at the age of 45, amid signs the company is having difficulty carrying out its ambitious warehouse-expansion strategy. Wright, a former logistics expert at Wal-Mart Stores, joined Amazon in July 1998 and was tapped for his skills to help Amazon build up its shipping and distribution operations.

Jenson had been executive vice president and CFO at Delta Air Lines, and comes to Amazon.com with a record of web-based initiatives that improved service to Delta's customers. He is the second key addition at Amazon.com in the last week. Jeffrey A. Wilke was recently named vice president-general manager of operations. Joseph P. Galli was just named President and COO in June. Jenson also served as CFO at NBC, and prior to that was staff executive and manager-mergers and acquisitions and director of investor relations at General Electric.

Jenson succeeds Amazon.com CFO Joy Covey. In April, Amazon.com announced that Covey would become the company's chief strategy officer, and she will continue to play a key role in the overall management of Amazon.com.

Amazon officials in recent conference calls have noted that the company's ambitious plans needed deeper management.