Following reports that Netflix was poaching Spencer Neumann from Activision Blizzard, the media services giant has confirmed today that Neumann is its new chief financial officer. He will succeed David Wells, who held that role since 2010.
Neumann was formerly the CFO at Activision since May 2017, but the video game company announced in a regulatory filing on Monday its plan to dismiss the executive for unknown reasons. Dennis Durkin has been appointed to replace him as Activision"s CFO.
Before he joined the video game giant, Neumann served as the CFO and executive vice president of Global Guest Experience of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts since 2012.
Regarding the new addition to Netflix"s executive team, Reed Hastings, the company"s CEO, said:
“Spencer is a stellar entertainment executive and we’re thrilled that he will help us provide amazing stories to people all over the world. I also want to again say thank you to David Wells, on behalf of the company and our shareholders, for his invaluable contributions at Netflix over the past 14 years.”
Neumann first joined Walt Disney in 1992, where he served as executive vice president of the ABC Television Network between 2001 and 2004 and CFO of the Walt Disney Internet Group from 1999 to 2001. After that, he moved to Providence Equity Partners and Summit Partners and worked in the private equity sector between 2005 and 2012.