The founder and chairman of Netflix, the Democratic megadonor Reed Hastings, is stepping down from the company’s board in June “in order to focus on his philanthropy and other pursuits,” the company announced late on April 16.
Netflix stock price sagged on the news and was trading in the $94.50 range Monday afternoon, down from a close of $107.49 on the day of the announcement. Hastings, 65, owns about 21 million shares, which were worth more than $2 billion at the higher price, and less than $2 billion at the lower price.
The departure’s significance is not just financial; it’s political. Hastings, whose net worth Forbes estimates at $5.2 billion, is already a prolific Democratic donor; federal campaign finance records show he gave more than $20 million from 2020 onward to Democrat-affiliated or anti-Trump committees. His wife, Patty Quillin, gave an additional $5 million. Leaving the helm of a publicly traded company may free Hastings up to devote even more time and money to politics and to policy-related charitable giving.
President Trump is following the story and took a shot at Hastings in a Truth Social post issued at 10:55 pm Friday night: “Was Reed Hastings forced to leave the Netflix Board because he’s a SLEAZEBAG? What was his Crime, and how many did he commit?”
President Obama and Michelle Obama announced over the weekend that their production deal with Netflix, which began in 2018 and was extended in 2024, is now “in a process now of transitioning to a more independent [future] where we can work with a bunch of different studios,” Deadline reported. Obama administration official Susan Rice remains on the Netflix board. It’s not clear whether the end of the Obama deal is related to the departure of Hastings, but it hasn’t exactly been a huge success either commercially or as a government-relations move.
Securities law mandates disclosure of stock sales by corporate directors, but not by former directors. Exiting the board will allow Hastings to sell his shares without being subject to insider-selling filing mandates, prompting some discussion.
Netflix had been competing with Paramount Skydance Corporation for control of Warner Bros. Discovery, which controls CNN; Paramount, led by David Ellison, won that takeover battle earlier this year.
In addition to being involved with the national Democratic Party, Hastings and Quillin are also politically active in California. Hastings gave $7 million in 2018 to “Families & Teachers for Antonio Villaraigosa for Governor 2018, sponsored by California Charter Schools Association Advocates,” California records show, and $3 million in 2021 to “Stop the Republican Recall of Governor Newsom.” Quillin gave more than $7 million from 2020 onward to California committees working on “decarceration” and fighting against tough-on-crime ballot initiatives.
Hastings, a board member of Bloomberg, shares some of former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg’s more constructive philanthropic passions when it comes to charter schools and education reform. He is on the board of KIPP, a charter school network, alongside Emma Bloomberg. He’s also on the board of City Fund, alongside Romy Drucker, who directs the education program at the Walton Family Foundation, which also supports charter schools. He’s on the board of Khan Academy, the ed-tech project that grew out of Sal Khan’s viral educational videos. In 2020, Hastings and Quillin announced a $120 million gift to historically black colleges, another area that has also been a focus for Bloomberg.
Quillin’s giving and volunteering is more idiosyncratic. She’s on the board of The 19th, which covers “gender, politics, policy and power” and describes itself as a newsroom “born out of the 2016 election, when Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump following a campaign that far too often centered around questions of a woman candidate’s ‘electability’ or ‘likeability.’” She’s also on the administrative board of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which is focused on birds.
“A pivotal moment in Patty’s journey occurred in 2016 when she visited a group of young men serving life sentences at San Quentin State Prison. This experience profoundly impacted her, leading to three years of volunteering at the prison and sparking a deep passion for criminal justice reform. Patty is now a passionate advocate for creating a more humane and rehabilitative justice system,” according to a bio of her on the website of Chicken & Egg Films, another project where she is a board member.
Quillin’s bio also describes her as “Founder and Board Chair of Meadow Fund, a donor-advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.”
Lateefah Simon had served as president of the Meadow Fund and now describes herself as “the first Muslim woman elected to Congress from California and the first member of Congress born with congenital blindness.” Simon has been churning out press releases calling for President Trump’s impeachment on the grounds that the conflict against Iran “puts him squarely in violation of the U.N. Genocide Convention, the Geneva Convention, and the Rome Statute.” Simon’s financial disclosure form as a congressional candidate in 2023 lists her as having earned income of $557,700 from “Patricia Quillin” in 2022.
Time reported in 2025 that Hastings and Quillin had given 2 million shares of Netflix—”worth about $1.1 billion in January 2024—to their education-focused Hastings Fund, a donor-advised fund at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.” Because the Silicon Valley Community Foundation is a pooled fund, it’s hard to track what gifts coming out of it are directed by Hastings and Quillin, and what is directed by other donors. The Silicon Valley Community Foundation tax return for the year ending December 31, 2024 lists donations of $31.5 million to the City Fund and $26,651,118 to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (Sapsucker Woods Rd, Ithaca NY).
Quillin and Hastings in 2012 signed the giving pledge, a commitment to give more than half of their wealth to charity. The Giving Pledge website links to a Variety report about a $5 million Hastings gift to White Stork, a Ukraine-focused charity that “will use the funds to support combat medics along the frontline with anti-drone jamming systems and other help.”
Spokespersons for Netflix and for the Silicon Valley Community Foundation did not respond by deadline to inquiries about Hastings’ plans.
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