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After serving for more than 11 years on Netflix’s board, Anne Sweeney is departing as a director.
Netflix disclosed Sweeney’s departure in an SEC filing Thursday. “On July 26, 2026, Anne Sweeney notified Netflix, Inc.
(the ‘Company’) that she was resigning from the Board of Directors of the Company effective as of that date. Ms. Sweeney’s resignation is not due to any disagreement with the Company,” the streamer said in the filing.
Sweeney, who is the former co-chair of Disney Media Networks and president of Disney/ABC Television Group, joined Netflix’s board in March 2015. She had served on the Netflix board’s compensation committee.
Sweeney’s entertainment experience, spanning more than three decades, included her oversight of Disney’s cable, broadcast and satellite TV properties worldwide for 18 years. During that time, she was charged with launching and running over 118 Disney channels and had oversight over various ABC properties including ABC Television Network, ABC Studios and the Disney ABC Cable Networks Group. Prior to Disney, she was CEO of FX Networks from 1993 to 1996 and spent more than 12 years at Viacom’s Nickelodeon.
Her exit from the Netflix board comes after co-founder Reed Hastings, who served as CEO for 25 years, officially departed the board as executive chairman following the June 4, 2026, annual shareholders meeting. Netflix said Hastings is leaving the board “to focus on his philanthropy and other pursuits,” which include tending to the Utah ski resort he owns.
Jay Hoag, Netflix’s lead independent director who has served on the company’s board since 1999, was named chairman of the company. Hoag, who was an early investor in Netflix, has served as a founding general partner at venture-capital firm Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) since 1995.
At this year’s annual shareholders meeting, Netflix investors overwhelmingly supported Hoag’s reelection to the board, with over 93% of shares voting for him. It was a different story last year: Shareholders in 2025 voted to boot him as a director with 78% of the shares voted on Hoag’s reelection cast against him. That was over displeasure with his poor attendance at board meetings the year prior, with an attendance rate of 50% in 2024. Following that vote, Hoag had proffered his resignation but Netflix’s board rejected it and kept him on as a director.
