Reed Hastings is the co-founder and CEO of Netflix. He also serves on the Facebook board, and used to serve on the Microsoft board. He has an estimated net worth of $2.3bn.
Hastings worked for the Peace Corps, and upon his return gained a master’s degree in computer science from Stanford University. His first job was at Adaptive Technology where he worked debugging software, before founding his first company Pure Software in 1991. Pure Software produced troubleshooting software.
In 1997 Hastings co-founded Netflix with Marc Randolph. The company began with DVD sales and rental, offering flat rate movie rental-by-mail to customers in the United States. In 2007, Netflix launched its media streaming service for use on computers.
Netflix expanded to international markets in 2010, starting with Canada. By 2016, the company was operating in over 190 countries. It is headquartered in Los Gatos California, and has over 109 million subscribers worldwide. It has a collection of over 100,000 titles. In 2016, Netflix released around 125 original series and films, more than any other network or channel.
Hastings lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is an educational philanthropist, advocating charter schools (public schools that are released from some of the rules that apply to most public schools). He had served on the Facebook board since 2011, and in 2016 it was estimated he owned over $10 million in Facebook shares.
