Netflix CFO to Step Down After Helping to Lead Expansion

Netflix CFO David Wells will step down after eight years on the job, during which the streaming service grew into an entertainment giant, according to Bloomberg.

Wells, 47, will help choose a successor and stay on until his replacement takes over to make sure the transition goes smoothly, Netflix said in a statement. Wells said he’s leaving to focus on philanthropy.

Wells guided Netflix’s finances as the company defied skeptics’ expectations of how much money it could spend on programming without going broke, pumping billions of dollars into new TV shows and movies. Netflix has budgeted more than $8 billion this year to buy shows from rival companies and finance productions of its own.

Wells’s successor will have to help CEO Reed Hastings and Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos manage the spending while facing stiffer competition. “David has been a valuable partner to Netflix and to me,“ Hastings said in a statement. “He skillfully managed our finances during a phase of dramatic growth that has allowed us to create and bring amazing entertainment to our members all over the world while also delivering outstanding returns to our investors.“

Netflix was still a DVD-by-mail service when Wells joined the company in 2004. He worked under Barry McCarthy, the CFO who took Netflix public. McCarthy is now the CFO of Spotify.