Jay Carney, the former White House press secretary for the Obama administration, is joining Amazon in a role that combines public relations and public policy.
Carney will join Amazon (AMZN) on Monday as the online retail giant’s senior vice president for Worldwide Corporate Affairs, the company confirmed on Thursday. The newly-created department will fold in the company’s existing public policy and public relations teams, which are headed by Paul Misener and Craig Berman, respectively. Misener and Berman will both be reporting to Carney in his new role.
News of Carney’s move to Amazon was first reported by Politico, which noted that he will split his time between Amazon’s Seattle headquarters and Washington, D.C.
Carney, who previously spent nearly two decades as a journalist working for Time, resigned his post as White House press secretary last May after more than three years on the job and had been working as a political analyst for CNN over the subsequent months. Carney succeeded Robert Gibbs, who was the White House’s first press secretary under Obama.
Last year, Carney was briefly rumored to be in the running to take over the PR operations at Apple (AAPL) with the departure of Katie Cotton. Another Obama administration veteran, David Plouffe, who served as the president’s campaign manager and as a White House adviser, joined Uber last year in a political strategy role.
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