MAY 2019 FASTCOMPANY.COM 53BETH GALETTI NEVER ASPIRED TO BE AN HR PERSON. NOR DID AMAZON
set out to hire someone with an unconventional background to run
its HR operations. That she wound up where she did is the result of
synchronicity—and the company’s instinctive love of contrarian gambits.
A Baltimore native and daughter of an engineer and an invest-
ment banker, Galetti was a math prodigy who entered Lehigh Uni-
versity at age 16 and earned a degree in electrical engineering. After
getting her MBA from Colorado Technical University, she joined
FedEx and eventually wound up as a Brussels-based vice president
with sweeping oversight of airline operations, engineering, and
planning in Europe, the Middle East, India, and Africa.
Sixteen years into her FedEx career, Galetti began investigating the
world beyond the shipping giant. “I quickly realized I didn’t have much
of a network,” she says. “I didn’t know any people outside of FedEx,
and so I started contacting old college roommates and professors and
different people and ultimately connected with someone at Amazon.”
Her logistics experience appealed to Amazon, which was just
beginning to ramp up its delivery of packages directly to customers
rather than relying solely on third parties. But Susan Harker, then
Amazon’s head of recruiting, was most impressed by how Galetti
“just lit up like a Christmas tree when she talked about developing
people. She had a passion for leading teams, for talent development.”
That led Harker to float the idea of an HR job, momentarily flum-
moxing Galetti. “I said, ‘Susan, I know you hire a lot of people at
Amazon and I think you confused my résumé,’ ” she recalls. Harker
sold her on the offer in part by including an insurance policy: At any
time, if she concluded that HR was not for her, the company would
find a slot for her elsewhere in the organization. (“Beth is not short
on guts, but she is a calculated risk-taker,” notes Michael Foster, a
colleague and friend from her FedEx days.)
Her first move was to immerse herself in the company’s unique
culture. Even by the mantra-crazy standards of the tech industry,
Amazon is devoted to its codified wisdom,a company that comprises everyone from
computer scientists to movie producers to
warehouse packers to Whole Foods grocers. It’s
rare for a week to go by without one (or more)
controversies burbling into the news about
Amazon’s workplace practices—from investi-
gations into its warehouse workers’ ability to
take bathroom breaks to strikes at unionized
facilities in Germany, Spain, and Poland, to
the recent undoing of the company’s planned
“HQ2” expansion in New York City, which it
said would have created 25,000 new jobs. All
stories like this connect back to Galetti.
Galetti, a tech veteran who had no HR
experience prior to arriving at Amazon, says
that her job is to make it easier for employ-
ees to do meaningful work. “I’m looking for
ways to remove the barriers, fix the defects,
and enable self-service,” she says. That goal
has led to a hiring frenzy of its own: The com-
pany now has a startling 600 people working
on internal software for purposes such as
onboarding new recruits and conducting
reviews, all of whom are part of Galetti’s HR
department rather than some engineering
group elsewhere in the organization.
Those who work closely with Galetti
speak of the ambition, diligence, and in-
quisitive nature she brings to her work.
Jeff Wilke, CEO of the company’s consumer
business—including all of its online and
offline retailing activities and Amazon
Prime—manages the divisions that employ
the majority of the company’s workforce.
When Galetti “sees something that’s right, and
that she thinks is going to work, she just gets it
done,” he says. With Amazon showing no sign
of slowing its drive to do virtually everything,
and hiring the people necessary, her busiest—
and most fraught—days may lie ahead.006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
17,000
T h e K i n d l e e - r e a d e r i s t h e
first of a bevy of Amazon
gadgets, including tab-
lets, TV boxes, and speak-
ers (and the famously
unsuccessful Fire Phone).20,70024,300
A m a z o n p a y s $ 1. 2 b i l l i o n f o r
shoe purveyor Zappos—noted
for its quirky culture and
obsessive customer service—
and promises to leave it
alone. (It does.)33,70056,200
Between offices, ware-
houses, and data centers,
Amazon now occupies 48
million square feet of
space and counting.88,400117,300
Amazon enters
India, with a
site that com-
plies with lo-
cal regulations
by offering
only products
from third-
party sellers.154,100
R o b o t s i n v a d e A m a z o n f u l-
fillment centers as the
company begins automating
the stocking process using
technology from its Kiva
Systems subsidiary.613,300
Amazon picks
Crystal City,
Virginia, and New
York City for its
“HQ2” expansion—
but withdraws
from New York af-
ter controversy
surrounding a
$3 billion incen-
tive package.230,800
The first-ever Amazon
brick-and-mortar store
opens in Seattle—a bookshop
that promotes its tomes
with ratings and reviews
from online customers.341,400566,000
By paying $13 billion for
Whole Foods, Amazon be-
comes a major grocer—and
gets a new venue to hawk
its own products, such as
Echo speakers.ILLUSTRATIONS BY STEPHEN MAURICE GRAHAM(Continued on page 90)