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Who is Colleen Aubrey? AWS exec's 'leaked' email on 'Project Dawn' layoffs at Amazon sparks row
AWS executive Colleen Aubrey sparked backlash after an email about planned Amazon job cuts was mistakenly sent to unintended staff and later leaked.
A top executive with Amazon Web Services (AWS) has sparked a row after ‘accidentally’ sending an email invite to discuss upcoming job cuts at Amazon to some of the company's employees who were not meant to receive it.
The email was from Colleen Aubrey, a top executive at AWS who has served in various roles at the company since 2005. The email was leaked to Business Insider and caused a massive row, even though the event was canceled shortly after the email was sent.
Business Insider reports that the email appears to have been sent by an assistant of Aubrey. The title of the meeting was: “Send Project Dawn email,” a reference to Amazon's ‘Project Dawn’ initiative that focuses on efficiency'. It discussed potential upcoming layoffs at Amazon.
The email stated that the company's earlier layoff notifications "impacted colleagues in....US, Canada, and Costa Rica" and the upcoming meeting was to discuss further layoffs at the company.
"This is a continuation of the work we've been doing for more than a year to strengthen the company by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy, so that we can move faster for customers," it stated.
Who Is Colleen Aubrey?
Colleen Aubrey, originally from Australia, has been working at Amazon as the Senior Vice President of AWS Solutions since May 2024, per a report by Fortune. Considered close to Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, she was added to Amazon's elite S-team of senior leaders in 2019 by Bezos.
Aubrey began her professional journey at Amazon in 2005 when she joined as a sales manager for Amazon.co.uk in London. After growing Amazon's market share in the UK significantly, she moved to the company's Seattle headquarters. From 2016 to 2021, she led Amazon's advertising across 10 countries. She became the SVP of Advertising Products and Tech in 2021. She started her current role at AWS in 2024.
A University of Canberra and Macquarie University MBA alum, she entered e-commerce with HotJobs.com in 1999. She also briefly worked at CareerOne, a job search portal in Australia, before that.
Also read: Who is Beth Galetti, Amazon executive who announced 16,000 job cuts?
Email Sparks Confusion Among Employees
Business Insider reported that the email has sparked confusion among Amazon employees. Those who received it are questioning whether they did so because their jobs will be affected. Amazon has not officially responded to the leaked email.
The upcoming layoff would be Amazon's second round of layoffs since the October 2025, when14,000 people were cut by the company.
