Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings shifts to board chairman role

Netfliix co-founder Reed Hastings

Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings has stepped down as executive chairman and now serves as the chairman of the board and non-executive director, the streaming giant announced on April 18, signaling a further move away from overseeing its daily operations.

In a letter to shareholders, Netflix noted that this move is part of the "natural evolution" of its leadership structure and succession planning.

Hastings, who founded Netflix with Marc Randolph in 1997, became the company's executive chairman in January 2023. This was after Greg Peters was promoted as co-CEO joining Ted Sarandos, who had taken on the role back in July 2020. Hastings had served as the company's sole CEO for about two decades until 2020.

In the subsequent years, Hastings has also pursued other business interests. In 2023, he invested $100 million to pick up a majority stake in Powder Mountain, a ski resort in America's Utah state. Hastings now serves as its CEO and announced plans to transform it into a hybrid public/private ski community in December 2024.

He has also been an active philanthropist, recently donating $50 million to create the Hastings Initiative for AI and Humanity at his alma mater Bowdoin College in the United States. In January 2024, he also donated $1.1 billion worth of his Netflix shares to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, a US-based charity that also counts Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum among its donors.

In other board-related changes, Netflix also announced that Tim Haley, its longest standing independent director, will not stand for re-election "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. We thank Tim for his long service and many contributions to the Netflix Board of Directors" the company stated in the letter.

Among other members on Netflix's board include Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner, Microsoft president Brad Smith, Zillow co-founder Rich Barton, Redpoint Ventures co-founder Tim Haley, and former US National Security Advisor Susan Rice.

These changes were part of Netflix's first-quarter results, which exceeded Wall Street expectations. The company reported a 12.5 percent increase in its revenue to $10.5 billion, while net income grew by 23.9 percent to $2.89 billion.

This is the first quarter since the service stopped reporting quarterly paid membership additions and its total subscriber base. The service had crossed the 300 million subscriber milestone in Q4 2024, with a total base of 301.6 million subscribers.

Netflix had previously attributed the decision to stop sharing its subscriber count to the differing business impacts of incremental memberships across its various pricing tiers in markets across the world.

The company said it will instead focus on revenue and operating margin as its primary financial metrics, while considering engagement as the best indicator for member satisfaction.