{"id":1452,"date":"2026-04-17T05:31:36","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T21:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/17\/reed-hastings-is-leaving-netflix-after-29-years\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T05:31:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T21:31:36","slug":"reed-hastings-is-leaving-netflix-after-29-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/17\/reed-hastings-is-leaving-netflix-after-29-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Reed Hastings is leaving Netflix after 29 years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Netflix co-founder and current chairman Reed Hastings is leaving the streaming company\u2019s board in June to focus on &#8220;his philanthropy and other pursuits,&#8221; according to <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/s22.q4cdn.com\/959853165\/files\/doc_financials\/2026\/q1\/FINAL-Q1-26-Shareholder-Letter.pdf\" data-i13n=\"cpos:1;pos:1\">a shareholder letter<\/a> released alongside Netflix&#8217;s Q1 earnings. Hastings has served as chairman of Netflix&#8217;s board since 2023, a role he assumed <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/netflix-reed-hastings-steps-down-ceo-211808104.html\" data-i13n=\"cpos:2;pos:1\">after stepping down as co-CEO<\/a> and promoting Greg Peters in his place.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Netflix changed my life in so many ways, and my all\u2011time favorite memory was January 2016, when we enabled nearly the entire planet to enjoy our service,&#8221; Hastings said in a statement. &#8220;My real contribution at Netflix wasn\u2019t a single decision; it was a focus on member joy, building a culture that others could inherit and improve, and building a company that could be both beloved by members and wildly successful for generations to come. A special thanks to Greg and Ted, whose commitment to Netflix\u2019s greatness is so strong that I can now focus on new things.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Hastings founded Netflix in 1997 as a DVD-by-mail rental service with his co-founder and the company&#8217;s first CEO Marc Randolph. In 1999, Hastings became CEO, and eventually led the company through its transformation into a streaming service in 2007. Netflix started producing its own television series and movies in 2013, and in 2020, the company&#8217;s board <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2020-07-16\/netflix-completes-hollywood-transformation-with-sarandos-s-move\" data-i13n=\"cpos:3;pos:1\">named Ted Sarandos as Hasting&#8217;s co-CEO<\/a>, in part to oversee its growing production business. Hastings stepped down as co-CEO in 2023 to become Netflix\u2019s executive chairman, as then COO Greg Peters was promoted to co-CEO. Among his other contributions, Hasting is also the architect of Netflix&#8217;s infamous <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/jobs.netflix.com\/culture\" data-i13n=\"cpos:4;pos:1\">&#8220;culture memo,&#8221;<\/a> which codified the company&#8217;s high-performance culture.<\/p>\n<p>While he&#8217;ll no longer be on Netflix&#8217;s board, Hastings still has a seat on the board of AI startup <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.anthropic.com\/news\/reed-hastings\" data-i13n=\"cpos:5;pos:1\">Anthropic<\/a> and media and financial software company <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/company\/press\/bloomberg-announces-new-board-of-directors\/\" data-i13n=\"cpos:6;pos:1\">Bloomberg<\/a>. Netflix, for its part, is continuing to expand outside of the television and film business Hastings helped build, by offering <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/entertainment\/streaming\/netflix-is-bringing-party-games-to-tvs-123034128.html\" data-i13n=\"cpos:7;pos:1\">a selection of curated party games<\/a>, a growing <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/entertainment\/streaming\/netflix-will-air-new-video-podcasts-from-pete-davidson-and-michael-irvin-this-month-224353011.html\" data-i13n=\"cpos:8;pos:1\">library of video podcasts<\/a> and <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/entertainment\/streaming\/netflix-lands-a-deal-with-mlb-to-air-select-live-baseball-games-213336003.html\" data-i13n=\"cpos:9;pos:1\">live sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Engadget at https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/entertainment\/streaming\/reed-hastings-is-leaving-netflix-after-29-years-213136444.html?src=rss<\/p><p>Please credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/obagg.com\">OBA Blog<\/a> &raquo; <a href=\"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/17\/reed-hastings-is-leaving-netflix-after-29-years\/\">Reed Hastings is leaving Netflix after 29 years<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Netflix co-founder and current chairman Reed Hastings is leaving the streaming company\u2019s board in June to focus on &#8220;his philanthropy and other pursuits,&#8221; according to a shareholder letter released alongside Netflix&#8217;s Q1 earnings. Hastings has served as chairman of Netflix&#8217;s board since 2023, a role he assumed after stepping down as co-CEO and promoting Greg Peters in his place. &#8220;Netflix changed my life in so many ways, and my all\u2011time favorite memory was January 2016, when we enabled nearly the entire planet to enjoy our service,&#8221; Hastings said in a statement. &#8220;My real contribution at Netflix wasn\u2019t a single decision; it was a focus on member joy, building a culture that others could inherit and improve, and building a company that could be both beloved [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-share"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1452\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}