If you’ve urgently ordered a package from Amazon — and exhaled when it arrived on your doorstep hours later — you likely have three graduates of the MIT Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) program to thank: John Tagawa SM ’99; Diego Méndez de la Luz MNG ’04, MBA ’11, SM ’11; or Chuck Cummings MBA ’11, SM ’11.
Each holds critical roles within the company. Tagawa oversees Amazon’s North American operations. Méndez de la Luz heads up operations in Mexico. Cummings leads customer fulfillment throughout Canada. They also mentor LGO students and recent graduates throughout the organization and credit LGO’s singular blend of operational and leadership strength for their success as Amazon grows.
John Tagawa
Tagawa came to Amazon — now the world’s largest online retailer — through an LGO alumni connection in 2008, joining the organization during rapid expansion. He led fulfillment centers on the West Coast and went on to oversee operations in India, South America, and in Europe, with a focus on safety, speed, and efficiency.
Today, he’s a resource for other LGO graduates at Amazon, applauding the program’s uniquely multidimensional focus on tech, engineering, and leadership, all of which are key pillars as the organization continues to grow.
“Today, we have hundreds of fulfillment centers worldwide, and Amazon has grown its transportation and last-mile delivery network in an effort to ensure greater resilience and speed in getting products to customers,” he explains.
Tagawa says that LGO’s unique dual-degree program provided a singular blueprint for success as an operations leader and an engineer.
“The technology and engineering education that I received at MIT plays directly into my day-to-day role. We’re constantly thinking about how to infuse technology and innovate at scale to improve outcomes for our employees and customers. That ranges from introducing robotics to our fulfillment centers to using AI to determine how much inventory we should buy and where we should place it to introducing technology on the shop floor to help our frontline leaders. Those components of my LGO education were critical,” he says.
After receiving his undergraduate degree at the University of Washington, Tagawa pursued engineering and operations roles. But it wasn’t until LGO that he realized how important the fusion of business, operations, and leadership competencies was.
“What drew me to LGO was being able to study business and finance, coupled with an engineering and leadership education. I hadn’t realized how powerful bringing all three of those disciplines together could be,” he reflects. “Amazon’s efficacy relies on how great our leaders are, and a big part of my role is to develop, coach, and build a great leadership team. The foundation of my ability to do that is based on what I learned at MIT about becoming a lifelong learner.”
Tagawa recalls his own classes with Donald Davis, the late chair and CEO of The Stanley Works. Davis was one of LGO’s first lecturers, sharing case studies from his time on the front lines. Davis imparted the concepts of servant-leadership and diversity, which shaped Tagawa’s outlook at Amazon.
“I get energized by the leadership principles at Amazon. We strive to be Earth’s best employer and being customer-obsessed. It’s energizing to lead large-scale organizations whose sole mission is to improve the lives of our employees and customers, with a strong focus on developing great leaders. Who could ask for something better than that?” he asks.
Diego Méndez de la Luz
This blend of leadership acumen and engineering dynamism also jump-started the career of Méndez de la Luz, now Amazon’s country director of Mexico operations. LGO’s leadership focus was crucial in preparing him for his Amazon role, where he oversees the vast majority of Amazon’s 10,000 employees in Mexico — those who work in operations — across 40 facilities throughout his home country.
At MIT, he took classes with notable professors, whom he credits with broadening his intellectual and professional horizons.
“I was a good student throughout my education, but only after joining LGO did I learn what I consider to be foundational concepts and skills,” says Méndez de la Luz, who also started his career in engineering. “I learned about inventory management, business law, accounting, and about how to have important conversations in the workplace — things I never learned as an engineer. LGO was tremendously useful.”
Méndez de la Luz joined Amazon shortly after LGO, working his way up from frontline management roles at fulfillment centers throughout the United States. Today, he oversees the end-to-end network of imports, fulfillment, transportation, and customer delivery.
At Amazon, he believes he’s making a real difference in his native country. With Amazon’s scale comes the responsibility to improve both the planet and local communities, he says. Amazon engages with communities through volunteer programs, literacy efforts, and partnerships with shelters.
Today, Méndez de la Luz says that he’s working in his “dream job — exactly what I went to MIT for,” in a community he loves.
“My role at Amazon is a great source of pride. When I was growing up, I wanted to be the president of Mexico. I still want to make a difference for people in our society. Here, I have the ability to come back to my home country to create good jobs. Having the ability to do that has been a surprise to me — but a very positive development that I just value so much,” he says. “I want people to feel excited that they’re going to come to work and see their friends and colleagues do well.”
Chuck Cummings
This collaborative atmosphere propelled Cummings to pursue a post-MIT career at Amazon after years as a mechanical engineer. He discovered a hospitable workplace that valued growth: He began as an operations management intern, and today he leads the customer fulfillment business in Canada, which includes the country’s fulfillment centers. It’s a big job made better by his LGO expertise, where he always strives for co-worker and customer satisfaction.
“I sought out LGO because I’ve always loved the shop floor,” he says. “I continue to get excited about: How do we offer faster speeds to Canadian customers? How do we keep lowering our cost structure so that we can continue to invest and offer new benefits for our customers? At the same time, how do I build the absolute best working environment for all of my employees?”
Last year, Cummings’ team launched an Amazon robotics fulfillment center in Calgary, Alberta. This was a significant enhancement for Canadian customers; now, Calgary shoppers have more inventory much closer to home, with delivery speeds to match. Cummings also helped to bring Amazon’s storage and distribution network to a new facility in Vancouver, British Columbia, which will enable nearby fulfillment centers to respond to a wider selection of customer orders at the fastest-possible delivery speeds.
These were substantial endeavors, which he felt comfortable undertaking thanks to his classes at MIT. His experience was so meaningful that Cummings now serves as Amazon’s co-school captain for LGO, where he recruits the next generation of LGO graduates for internships and full-time roles. Cummings has now worked with more than 25 LGO graduates, and he says they’re easy to pick out of a crowd.
“You can give them very ambiguous, complex problems, and they can dive into the data and come out with an amazing solution. But what makes LGO students even more special is, at the same time, they have strong communication skills. They have a lot of emotional intelligence. It’s a combination of business leadership with extreme technical understanding,” he says.
Both Tagawa and Méndez de la Luz interact frequently with LGO students, too. They agree that, while Amazon’s technology is always unfolding, its leadership qualities remain constant — and match perfectly with LGO’s reputation for creating dynamic, empathetic professionals who also prize technical skill.
“Whereas technology has grown and changed by leaps and bounds, leadership principles carry on for decades,” Tagawa says. “The infusion of the engineering, business, and leadership components at LGO are second to none.”