Reed Hastings

Wilmot Reed Hastings Jr. is an American billionaire businessman. He is the co-founder of Netflix, which provides the eponymous streaming service. Hastings serves on a number of boards and works with various non-profit organizations. A former president of the California State Board of Education, Hastings is also an advocate for charter schools.

• Reed Hastings, cofounder and chairman of Netflix, revolutionized how the world is entertained.
• Hastings cofounded Netflix in 1997, the same year he sold his first company, Pure Software. He took Netflix public in 2002.
• Netflix originally operated as a DVD-by-mail subscription service, but began streaming content in 2007.
• Hastings stepped down as co-CEO in 2023 and has been reducing his shareholding; he now owns less than 1% of Netflix shares.
• In 2020, he and his wife Patty donated $120 million to two historically Black colleges and the United Negro College Fund. Their lifetime giving surpasses $2 billion.