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Amazon announces new board member, a $5B stock buyback, and an exec taking a 2-year leave
(Amazon)
Diego Piancentini.
Amazon's board just approved a $5 billion stock-buyback program and appointed a new member, Corning CEO William Weeks, according to a new filing.
The $5 billion stock-repurchase authorization replaces the previous $2 billion stock-repurchase authorization that the board of directors approved in 2010.
The company's stock was up slightly on the news.
Amazon also announced that long-time employee Diego Piacentini will be taking a two-year leave of absence to work pro bono leading the digital-technology office of the Italian prime minister.
"After 16 years at Amazon, it’s a way for me to give back to the country in which I was born and lived for 40 years of my life," he said in a statement.
As the SVP of Amazon's international-consumer business, Piacentini has been particularly focused on growth in India.
"The size of opportunity [in India] is so large it will be measured in trillions, not billions," he recently told Fortune. "Trillions of dollars, that is, not rupees."
Piacentini is Amazon's second-biggest employee shareholder after founder and CEO Jeff Bezos.
He'll be replaced by Russ Grandinetti, SVP of Kindle content, who will continue to lead that division as well.
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