Mar 21, 2007 - Jeff Wilke, senior vice president for North America retail at Amazon.com, will deliver the Dr. Bruce J. Nelson '74 Distinguished Speaker Series lecture Tuesday, March 27, at 7 p.m. in Galileo Hall at Harvey Mudd College.

Wilke's lecture is titled, "Tough Choices: Leadership Is All About the Long Run." In addition to the Nelson lecture, he will be on campus as the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Visiting Professor in Leadership and Management. He will teach part of an ongoing class in leadership and hold seminars and discussions for students, faculty and administrators.

Wilke leads the business teams that own more than 30 product categories for Amazon’s U.S. and Canadian websites, representing combined revenues of $5.9 billion in 2006. A member of Amazon’s senior executive team, he leads the company's traffic generation and market research teams, and is responsible for Amazon’s strategic Amazon Prime™ initiative, the company’s "$79 all-you-can-eat" two-day shipping program.

Prior to January 2007, Wilke was the company's senior vice president for worldwide operations, and his teams were responsible for Amazon.com’s global fulfillment centers and processes, supply chain management, ordering, transportation and customer service operations. Wilke managed the expansion of Amazon.com’s global fulfillment center network, which included the launch of new websites as well as the design, construction and startup of new fulfillment centers around the world.

Before joining Amazon.com in 1999, Wilke was vice president and general manager of Pharmaceutical Fine Chemicals, a division of AlliedSignal (now Honeywell). His career also includes five years in a variety of operations leadership roles in the chemical, polymer and electronics industries. He was also a senior consultant at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). Wilke received an M.B.A. and M.S. in chemical engineering from MIT, where he focused on total quality and process improvement techniques in the Leaders for Manufacturing program. He holds a B.S. in chemical engineering, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Princeton University.

The Nelson lectures are free and open to the public and will be followed by a dessert reception. For more information, please call 909/607-7924.

Developing ethical leadership is a fundamental component of the education provided at Harvey Mudd College. The Walter and Leonore Annenberg Visiting Professorship in Leadership and Management advocates and develops this vision.

The Spring 2007 Dr. Bruce J. Nelson '74 Distinguished Speaker Series builds on the campus appearances of the Annenberg Visiting Professors. The generosity of the family of Dr. Bruce J. Nelson '74 has made this lecture series possible.