Jim Herd, Managing Partner & Co-Founder of Herd Freed Hartz, was interviewed for this CNBC article about the trend of Amazon losing executives as it becomes a prime target for recruiting talent.

See full CNBC article (published May 17, 2018) by Eugene Kim

Amazon loses another key executive as it becomes a top target for poaching tech talent

• Jim Freeman, VP of Alexa who oversaw all messaging and communication products, has left in April, adding to the string of recent executive departures at Amazon.
• More than a dozen executives and senior managers have left Amazon over the past 10 months.
• Hiring experts say there’s been increased demand to poach from Amazon, while some managers are leaving due to burnout.

….Professional recruiters point to two broader trends for the sudden uptick in the number of managers leaving: burnout after breakneck growth and stronger demand for Amazon executives from other companies.

Jim Herd, managing partner at the Seattle-based executive recruiting firm Herd Freed Hartz, said Amazon could be a tough place to be for a long time, as its work culture tends to be more fast-paced and high-pressure than some of its peers.

“When you go to Amazon, you’re on a treadmill — it’s really non-stop,” Herd said. “It’s not a place for everyone.”

At the same time, thanks to Amazon’s exponential success in recent years, the demand for Amazon executives has grown significantly, Herd said. Now, 9 out of 10 of his clients pick Amazon as their most preferred poaching destination, he said.

And the higher Amazon’s stock goes, the more companies are asking for Amazon executives to come help build a similar culture of growth. It is no coincidence that a lot of the departing executives went on to join later-stage startups, such as Airbnb, WeWork, and Uber, he said.

“In the ’90s everybody wanted Microsoft executives. Now it’s Amazon,” Herd said….