Amazon's head of European retail announces he's leaving the company — the third exec to do so since June

• Amazon's most senior European executive, Xavier Garambois, is stepping down.
• Jorrit Van der Meulen will replace him as the e-commerce giant's head of European retail.
• Garambois has overseen a huge expansion of Amazon's European workforce. In 2015, Amazon had 40,000 staff in Europe – by the end of 2020, it will employ almost 100,000 across the continent.
• "Like with any company, people leave from time to time for personal or professional reasons — many return to the company," a spokesperson told The Telegraph.

Amazon's most senior European executive, Xavier Garambois, will step down at the end of the year.

Garambois has led Amazon's European retail and consumer-facing operations for the past eight years. Before that, he was managing director of Amazon in France.

His departure was reported in The Telegraph on Monday, and later confirmed by an Amazon spokesperson to Business Insider. Garambois will take a break from work at the end of the year before deciding his next move.

He will be replaced by Jorrit Van der Meulen, the e-commerce giant's current head of devices for Europe, who oversees products such as the Kindle. Van der Meulen has worked at Amazon since 1999.

During his time at the company, Garambois has overseen a massive expansion of Amazon's European workforce. In 2015 Amazon had 40,000 staff in Europe – by the end of 2020 it will employ that many in the UK alone, and have almost 100,000 staff across the continent.

Garambois also launched the company's "try before you buy" fashion service, Amazon Wardrobe, in the UK, and started Amazon's operations in Turkey.

The news of his departure comes weeks after Doug Gurr, Amazon's UK managing director, and Jeff Wilke, Amazon's worldwide consumer chief, announced they would leave the company.

Though some of its executive team are leaving, the company has continued to expand its workforce during the pandemic. On September 3, it announced it would recruit 7,000 permanent staff in the UK after sales surged during lockdown. On September 4, it said it will add 10,000 new jobs to its planned Bellevue, Washington expansion.

An Amazon spokesperson told Business Insider: "We thank Xavier Garambois for his leadership of Amazon Europe since 2012. He has been an incredible leader, and has played a key role in building Amazon's retail business across Europe.

"He will be greatly missed by his colleagues in Luxembourg and around the world. Xavier will remain in his role until later this year and will work closely with his successor, Jorrit Van der Meulen, over the coming months."