Amazon VP Maria Renz joins Californian fintech SoFi

Written by Ruby Hinchliffe
16th March 2020

Amazon’s vice president for delivery experience is leaving the US Big Tech after nearly 21 years to join Silicon Valley-based online personal finance firm Social Finance (SoFi), Wall Street Journal reports.

Maria Renz joined Amazon in 1999, having most notably served as technology adviser to CEO Jeff Bezos. She was, for a time, his first and only female adviser.

Maria Renz

Renz says she built out “several multi-billion-dollar retail categories” at Amazon, as well as inventing a new free shipping policy called ‘Subscribe & Save’, and leading subsidiaries such as Woot, Abe Books, Endless.com, MyHabit.com and diapers.com.

Under Renz, the delivery experience at Amazon evolved from Prime two-day delivery to one-day, and to same-day delivery in some markets.

“Amazon to me has been like a playground,” Renz told The Information in February. “I have been able to indulge my fascination with customer behaviour…and to do it in many different arenas.”

Renz will now head up SoFi’s credit card, brokerage and bank-account businesses as its enterprise vice president.

The fintech offers student loan refinancing, mortgages and personal loans, as well as money management, automatic investing, and insurance services.

Currently claiming to have 900,000 members, the 2011-founded firm made Mastercard its exclusive card network provider for its SoFi Money debit card service in January, adding cashback rewards, complimentary phone insurance, and discounted airport concierge services to its list of benefits.

Other executives to leave Amazon alongside Renz this year include Steve Kessel, head of physical stores, and Jeff Blackburn, who oversaw entertainment, business development and advertising businesses.