Reed Hastings, co-founder and longtime former CEO of Netflix, is shifting from executive chairman to chairman of the board.
The move to a non-executive role on the board was described by the company as “part of the natural evolution of our leadership structure and succession planning.”
Hastings, 64, passed the baton to Co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters in 2023 and became executive chairman of the board. The executive has pursued business interests apart from Netflix and has also become an active philanthropist, recently giving $50 million to his alma mater, Bowdoin College.
Along with the Hastings move, which was announced in the company’s quarterly letter to shareholders, the company said longtime board member Tim Haley does not plan to continue in the position.
Watch on Deadline
The letter referred to Haley as “our longest standing independent director,” with a tenure dating back to the company’s inception as a DVD-by-mail operation.
“For more than 27 years, Tim has been on this journey with us and his counsel and leadership have been a much valued part of our success,” the letter said. “We thank Tim for his long service and many contributions to the Netflix board of directors.”
Hastings co-founded Netflix in 1997, leading it as solo CEO until 2020, when he became Co-CEO with Sarandos.
Netflix disclosed the board shuffles along with first-quarter results, with revenue and profit figures topping Wall Street expectations. The streaming giant this quarter stopped reporting total subscriber numbers. It has said that the subscriber number, which was at 301.6 million at the end of 2024, doesn’t tell the whole story. Instead, earnings and free cash flow are considered by the leadership team to be better indications of the company’s fiscal health.
English