For Lena Zak, the throughline of a dynamic career has always been evolution. Having spent the vast majority of her professional life driving the digital transformation of traditional businesses including navigating the shifting tides of Australia’s media landscape, Lena understands that modernising legacy systems isn’t just about implementing new software. It’s about changing how people operate.
Today, as the Country Manager of Amazon Business in Australia, Lena is applying that same transformative lens to a sector notoriously bogged down by red tape: B2B procurement.
Reflecting on the platform’s one-year anniversary in Australia, Lena is clear on the mission. “I’m really focusing on the digital transformation of a traditional role in businesses, which is that procurement function,” she told Women Love Tech today. “It’s about bringing e-procurement to the forefront to give businesses the same speed, convenience, and value that consumers in Australia have come to love.”
The appetite for this shift is undeniable. In just twelve months, Amazon Business has seen an average quarter-on-quarter order growth of over 50%. The reality is that Australian business leaders are currently spending, on average, more than $250,000 annually just managing procurement. With 70% of leaders reporting that manual approvals cause significant purchase delays, the old way of doing things is costing companies both time and capital.
“We had an inkling launching Amazon Business would be an exciting thing to do, and businesses are hungry for digital transformation— and to see that growth and selection,” Lena notes. “No one says, ‘We’d love things to run slowly.'”
Bridging the E-Commerce Divide
Lena’s journey to this role included a stint with the Prime organisation in Seattle, an experience that deeply informed her approach to accessibility. Her goal there was to ensure e-commerce wasn’t a divided experience, but rather “something that was for everybody.”
Now, she is extending that philosophy to Australian enterprises, bridging the gap between massive corporations and the 14,000 local, mostly small-to-medium businesses that sell on the platform. Amazon Business is essentially opening up a new, lucrative B2B customer base for these local sellers.
To meet this demand, the platform has expanded its product selection by a factor of nine over the past year. Crucially for companies aiming to meet ESG targets, this expansion includes over 60,000 Climate Pledge Friendly products, empowering businesses to make sustainable purchasing decisions seamlessly.
AI and the Future of Work
To further alleviate the daily administrative grind for procurement teams, Amazon Business is leaning heavily into Artificial Intelligence. The launch of Amazon Quick, an agentic AI assistant for Prime Business customers that connects to over 100 apps, is designed to automate manual tasks and free up teams for strategic work.
“We are proud of building simple and accessible tools like that to help businesses,” Lena adds. Whether supporting a sole trader or a massive enterprise, tools like Amazon Quick and the newly launched Business Essentials are streamlining operations for local success stories, from Iglu Student Accommodation to Zushi.
“Society as a whole will win when women succeed.”
Lifting as You Climb: Women in Tech
Beyond supply chains and AI integrations, Lena remains deeply passionate about the human element of the tech industry, particularly when it comes to gender diversity—a mission that lies at the very heart of Women Love Tech.
“I’m a huge celebrator of women in tech,” Lena shares. “Even in the past two decades, I’ve seen so many more females in senior roles. I’ve certainly benefited from being mentored by the kind of leader who brings up other women, and I want to support women-led small businesses, too.”
