Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Reed Hastings
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Reed Hastings (Wilmot Reed Hastings, Jr.) is the founder of Netflix. He is currently Netflix's chief executive officer, president and chairman of the board, and was the founder of Pure Software. He also serves on the Board of Directors for Microsoft Corp.
His father was a lawyer who once served in the Nixon administration, serving as general counsel in the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The younger Hastings grew up in the Washington D.C. and Boston, Massachusetts areas, and attended high school at the Buckingham, Browne, and Nichols School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
He studied mathematics at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, and won its mathematics department's Smyth Prize in 1981. He received his bachelor's degree from Bowdoin College in 1983, then served as a Peace Corps Volunteer teaching mathematics in Swaziland from 1983 to 1985. He earned a master's degree in computer science from Stanford University in 1988.
In 1991 he founded his first company, Pure Software, which grew to one of the fifty largest public software companies by 1997, when it merged with Atria. Later that year, the combined company, Pure Atria, was acquired by Rational Software. Rational was subsequently acquired by IBM in 2003.
A self-avowed Democrat, Hastings is active in educational philanthropy and politics. He is a founding member of NewSchools.org, Aspire Public Schools, Pacific Collegiate School, and EdVoice.net. He led the successful drive in 1998 for a stronger charter school law. He is a member of Technology Network (TechNet), where he served as CEO for a year. In 2000, he joined with the California Teachers' Association, Governor Gray Davis, John Doerr, and others to win the battle for easier passage of local school construction bonds.
He served as President of the California State Board of Education for two terms under Gray Davis. Although Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger nominated Hastings to serve for another term, the California State Legislature rejected him in January of 2005 [1]
On March 26, 2007, it was announced that Hastings was elected to the Microsoft board of directors.[2]
- Reed Hastings biography at Netflix.com
- Reed Hastings article on the Peace Corps Online site
- Reed Hastings article on charter schools
- Reed Hastings interview on National Public Radio
- Interview with Reed Hastings, Netflix Founder
- Part of Business 2.0's List of "10 people who don't matter"
- Part of Time's 100 Most Influential People"