Amazon elevates former Prime boss to oversee health efforts

Amazon‘s former Prime boss has been moved to a role overseeing the company’s health efforts.

Neil Lindsay last month was elevated to senior vice president of health and brand within Amazon’s worldwide consumer business, according to his LinkedIn profile and people familiar with the move.

Lindsay’s responsibilities now include overseeing Amazon’s combined health care efforts, including its online pharmacy, telehealth and health diagnostics units, according to a person familiar with the matter. He continues to oversee Amazon’s global brand and marketing efforts, said this person, who declined to be identified discussing internal company matters.

Lindsay has held roles across a number of divisions during his more than 11 years at Amazon, including heading up the company’s key Prime subscription business and managing worldwide marketing. He also helped shape the branding for popular Amazon devices like the Kindle e-reader, along with the Fire and Echo products.

Lindsay sits on the “S-team,” a highly influential group of executives that report to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.

Amazon is tapping Lindsay to lead its health efforts as the company deepens its presence in the health care industry. The company last year launched Amazon Pharmacy, which seeks to make it easier to order prescriptions online and was a result of its 2018 acquisition of PillPack.

Amazon’s telehealth service, known as Amazon Care, started as a pilot program for some of its employees. Earlier this year, Amazon expanded the program for all employees nationally, and began offering it to other companies for their employees

The company has also sought to attract health care companies to use its cloud-computing services to manage their vast amounts of data. Meanwhile, Amazon has added new health care applications to its Alexa voice assistant and rolled out a health and fitness tracker, called Halo.

Earlier this year, Amazon said it was winding down Haven, its joint venture with Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan. Haven had been touted three years ago as an incubator to improve employer health programs.

Amazon doesn’t break out things like prescription sales or the number of Halo devices its sold.

But analysts expect health care to be a valuable business for the company over time. Loop Capital analysts estimated Amazon could grow its revenue by $72 billion through further health care expansion.

–Alex Sherman contributed reporting to this story

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