Ex-Marine’s New Mission: Lead Amazon Team In West Caldwell

WEST CALDWELL, NJ — Four years ago, retail giant Amazon created a challenging-but-worthy goal for itself: hire 25,000 veterans and military spouses by 2021. That mission has been reached and topped; there are now more than 40,000 such employees who take home paychecks from Amazon, including 1,600 in New Jersey.

One of them, Mario DeBonne, is a site leader at the company’s recently launched delivery station in West Caldwell.

DeBonne, a 45-year-old Park Ridge resident, started his Amazon career at the fulfillment center in Woodbridge. He began his military service with the U.S. Marines after graduating from Rutgers University, eventually leading several teams on critical overseas missions.

When he returned home, that instinct to lead never quit – and it led him to his new calling, DeBonne said.

“Amazon’s mission related to military missions, where barriers that prevent us from achieving success must be taken down,” DeBonne continued. “I also wanted to operate in a high energy environment and lead our young and talented associates.”

“There’s no greater reward than leading our nation’s young and highly talented men and women,” he added.

Patch asked DeBonne a few questions to learn more about his career switch. Here were his replies.

Can you tell us a little about your service in the Marines? When/where did you serve?

After graduating Rutgers University, I was accepted to Officers Candidate School (OCS) U.S. Marines, in Quantico VA. After graduating OCS in December 2000, I served on active duty with 1st Marine Division until 2010. During this time I deployed to the Middle East in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom on two separate occasions, leading my Marines in a combat zone (brought everyone save home to their families!)

When did you start working with Amazon? Why did you choose to enter this field of work after the Marines?

After my second deployment ended, I transitioned to the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves and at the same time attended Carnegie Mellon University TEPPER School of Business as a full time MBA student. After graduating business school, I was offered a role with General Electric as senior business leader for GE Aviation in 2011. In 2017 I transitioned to Amazon, EWR7 as operations manager. While working as operations manager at EWR7, I attended Command and Staff College, part of Marine Corps University designed for military officers.

Earlier this year, I was fortunate to be selected to work on Tony Castaldo’ s team as a site leader for DYN5, AMZL delivery station. I currently serve as Lieutenant Colonel U.S. Marines Reserves on Marine Forces Europe Staff in Stuttgart, Germany, focusing on long-term national security strategies.

What are some of the similarities – and differences – between leading missions in the military and leading a team of Amazon employees?

Leadership and teamwork have been embedded in my DNA since October 8, 2000, when I entered officer candidate school in Quantico, VA. For 21 years, as a Marine officer, it has always been about mission accomplishment and taking care of Marines.

As I became Amazonian in 2017, those two critically important concepts became very familiar to me because mission accomplishment for me was to meet our customers’ expectations. Additionally, I always believed taking care of my Marines was single most critical part of my leadership obligation to the organization. As an Amazonian, I quickly realized that people are our most precious asset and without our teams, we won’t accomplish our mission or in another terms we will fail our customer’s delivery promise.

Marines honor 11 Marine Corps Leadership Principles and 14 leadership traits, which very much align with Amazon leadership principles. For example, ‘courage to lead’ aligns with Amazon’s Ownership Principle and Decisiveness equates to Bias for Action.

Amazon’s culture and innovative spirit resonates with me daily as I see opportunities to grow while elevating my people to the next level. One of the differences is the fact that earning trust as Amazonian is not driven by past successes that can be reflected in one’s rank or the dedication to a code/vow we all make to protect and serve one another. But ironically, what has enabled me to earn the trust of my fellow Amazonians, is the very code that I learned being a Marine, it is that “Great Leaders Eat Last.”

What does this mean? It means you are on the front lines with your team, no matter what the task is, you are equally invested in them professionally, personally and most importantly it means you lead by example because integrity is always your North Star. I take great pride in what it means to be a U.S. Marine and an Amazonian – it is always about setting the bar higher every day and getting the job done.

Send local news tips and correction requests to eric.kiefer@patch.com

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