Yahoo News Reed Hastings Shifts To Executive Chairman Role At Netflix; Greg Peters New Co-CEO, Bela Bajaria & Scott Stuber Get New Titles
Netflix has a new co-CEO.
Netflix on Thursday announced that Greg Peters, who was previously COO and head of product, has been promoted to the role, sharing it with Ted Sarandos. It comes as company co-founder Reed Hastings steps down to become Executive Chairman.
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Separately, Bela Bajaria, formerly Head of Global TV, has become Chief Content Officer. Scott Stuber has become Chairman of Netflix Film.
Hastings said the moves are the last in the company’s “succession planning.” His also said new role of Executive Chairman is one “founders often take,” referencing Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, after they “pass the CEO baton to others.” Hastings co-founded Netflix as a DVD-by-mail company in 1997 and made Sarandos, whom he hired in 2000, Co-CEO in 2020. The company’s quarterly shareholder letter, noting the close working relationship among Peters, Sarandos and Hastings for the past 15 years, said the move “makes formal externally how we have been operating internally.”
Peters joined the company as 2008 and was first International Development Officer before eventually becoming COO in July 2020, three years after assuming the role of Chief Product Officer. He made his bones by piloting the Netflix jump from physical DVDs to streaming in 2007 and more recently overseeing its moves into advertising and advertising.
In an SEC filing, Netflix updated the 2023 executive compensation guidance it had issued at the end of December given today’s Co-CEO shuffle. (Unlike many peers in media and entertainment, Netflix offers a public forecast for pay before the start of the year, as opposed to reporting it retroactively.) Peters is now due to receive a base salary of $3 million, stock options of $17.325 million and a targeted bonus of $14.325. The package of $34.65 million is a big bump from the $24 million he was to have earned in his previous role and is equal to what Hastings was to have taken home. Hastings, according to the latest filing, will receive a salary of $500,000 and stock options worth another $2.5 million.
Sarandos said, “I want to thank Reed for his visionary leadership, mentorship and friendship over the last 20 years. We’ve all learned so much from his intellectual rigor, honesty and willingness to take big bets – and we look forward to working with him for many more years to come. Since Reed started to delegate management to us, Greg and I have built a strong operating model based on our shared values and like-minded approach to growth. I am so excited to start this new chapter with Greg as co-CEO.”
In terms of Bejaria and Stuber’s new titles, it’s not entirely clear of the reporting structure.
Sarandos said, “Bela and Scott are outstanding creative executives with proven track records at Netflix. In 2022 we premiered many of our most popular series and films in Netflix history, including Wednesday, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Purple Hearts, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, The Adam Project and Harry & Meghan – a testament to their leadership and creativity. I couldn’t be more excited to work alongside them as we seek to delight audiences for years to come.”
Here’s Hastings’ blog post today announcing the moves:
I’m so proud of our first 25 years, and so excited about our next quarter of a century. We can do so much more to better entertain the world and deliver more joy to our members.
Our board has been discussing succession planning for many years (even founders need to evolve!). As part of that process, we promoted Ted to co-CEO alongside me in July 2020, and Greg to Chief Operating Officer – and in the last 2½ years I’ve increasingly delegated the management of Netflix to them.
It was a baptism by fire, given COVID and recent challenges within our business. But they’ve both managed incredibly well, ensuring Netflix continues to improve and developing a clear path to reaccelerate our revenue and earnings growth. So the board and I believe it’s the right time to complete my succession.
Starting today, Greg Peters will step up from COO to become Ted’s co-CEO. Going forward, I’ll be serving as Executive Chairman, a role that founders often take (Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, etc.) after they pass the CEO baton to others. Ted, Greg and I have been working closely together in different capacities for 15 years. As is common in long, effective relationships, we’ve all learned how to bring out the best in each other. I look forward to working with them in this role for many years to come.
Ted and Greg have developed great trust and respect for each other through their collective successes and failures. In addition, they can always be relied upon to put Netflix’s interests first. These qualities — combined with their complementary skill sets, deep knowledge of entertainment and technology, and proven track record at Netflix — create a unique opportunity to deliver faster growth and greater success long term with them as co-CEOs.
Looking back, Ted had the early foresight and skill to push into original programming, changing our trajectory as a company. He then moved quickly to expand into international originals, film, animation, and unscripted — bets that have helped broaden our content slate and which took courage given all the skepticism. Greg has been instrumental in driving our partnerships, building and launching advertising, pushing us into deeper personalization, rebuilding our talent organization and helping to strengthen our culture. He also spent several years in Japan, launching our early efforts in Japanese originals as the country’s general manager, and is currently building out our games initiative.
For myself, I’ll be helping Greg and Ted, and, like any good Chairman, be a bridge from the board to our co-CEOs. I’ll also be spending more time on philanthropy, and remain very focused on Netflix stock doing well.
Also, today, we have made Bela Bajaria Chief Content Officer and Scott Stuber Chairman of Netflix Film. It’s been amazing to see the enormous strides we’ve made across TV and film under their leadership.
We start 2023 with renewed momentum as a company and a clear path to reaccelerate our growth. I’m thrilled about Ted and Greg’s leadership, and their ability to make the next 25 years even better than the first.
Here’s to the next chapter of Netflix and our leadership. -Reed Hastings
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