Netflix has found an executive to lead its ad-supported tier plan: Snap’s chief business officer and top ad executive, Jeremi Gorman.
Gorman told colleagues at Snap on Tuesday that she was leaving to join Netflix along with Peter Naylor, Snap’s vice president of ad sales for America, according to two people familiar with the matter. Russ Caditz-Peck, a Snap spokesperson, confirmed the departure.
Both Gorman and Naylor are leaving Snap amid a restructuring of its advertising team and layoffs that hit the social media company this week. Snap plans to cut about 20 percent of its workforce starting Wednesday. The edge previously reported.
Netflix has had its own layoffs this year, laying off hundreds of employees and scaling back programming after it reported its first subscriber loss in a decade. Now the company is gearing up to launch a cheaper tier backed by ads that can cost between $7 and $9 per month and will exclude extras like the ability to download videos.
Kumiko Hidaka, a Netflix spokesperson, confirmed that Gorman will become the company’s president of Worldwide Advertising and that she will report to COO Greg Peters. Naylor will lead Netflix’s ad sales organization and report to Gorman. Proverb reported first on the rents.
“Jeremi’s deep experience in running ad businesses and Peter’s background in leading ad sales teams together will be critical as we expand consumer membership options through a new ad-supported offering,” Peters said in a statement.
