Former Amazon exec Jeff Wilke on his next big thing

Jeff Wilke did something unusual when he left his role as Amazon's Worldwide Consumer CEO in March, after more than two decades with the company: he learned to code in the Python programming language.

"I had lots of computer scientists that were working for me and the organization, and I was heavily involved in a bunch of architectural decisions, but I hadn't written code in years," he explained. "I didn't understand exactly what it took to turn the ideas that we had into actual code. ... So I just thought it'd be useful to update my skills after a couple of decades."

He was "blown away" by the experience.

"The coolest thing about coding ... is that you get to stand on the shoulders of all the other people who have written code and uploaded it to libraries before you and so you don't have to go back and reinvent everything. And that just means innovation and invention and goodness can accelerate," he said. "So I actually left those two weeks totally optimistic."

Wilke is translating that optimism into a variety of investments and projects, across a range of interests and industries, from biotech to honeybees. But the venture getting most of his time and attention is Re:Build Manufacturing, a Massachusetts-based company on a quest to reinvigorate the U.S. manufacturing industry.

Re:Build has raised more than $400 million and made six acquisitions in engineering services and advanced materials, with six facilities in five states.

Wilke is the company's chairman and co-founder, and it's a return to his roots. He grew up in Pittsburgh and worked early on in pharmaceuticals, chemicals and electronics.

On this episode of the GeekWire Podcast, we talk about the future of U.S. manufacturing with Wilke and Re:Build Manufacturing CEO Miles Arnone, a longtime industrial business leader, inventor and investor who co-founded the company with Wilke.

Later in the show, during a momentous week for Amazon, we also get Wilke's thoughts about his former employer, as Andy Jassy succeeds founder Jeff Bezos as CEO. Wilke was considered a potential and even likely successor to Bezos prior to the announcement of his departure. He addressed that in a prior interview with our partners at the tech news site dot.la.

Audio editing by Curt Milton; theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.

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