Netflix has hired Jeff Karbowski, most recently VP and chief accounting officer of PayPal, to take on the same role at the streaming giant.
Karbowski, 45, will take on the role effective Feb. 13, 2023, reporting to CFO Spencer Neumann, the company said in an SEC filing Monday. Netflix’s hiring of Karbowski comes after the company had hired former Electronic Arts finance exec Ken Barker for the job last year — before he resigned after about three months.
A nearly 10-year veteran of PayPal, Karbowski served in various roles at the online payment processor since May 2013. He was chief accounting officer since August 2020, and prior to that was VP, global controller from October 2019 to August 2020. Karbowski was senior director, controller for PayPal from June 2015 to September 2019.
Prior to joining PayPal, Karbowski served as the director of accounting at Skype, a division of Microsoft, and before that was a senior manager at consulting firm EY. Karbowski is a certified public accountant and holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from West Virginia University.
At Netflix, Karbowski will receive an annual base salary of $2 million, a one-time signing bonus of $400,000 and a $1 million annual stock option allowance, per the SEC filing.
Karbowski joins Netflix as the company has been keeping a tighter rein on expenses — and made a series of job cuts last year — after its subscriber numbers declined in the first half of 2022. After years of significant content-spending increases,Netflix in 2022 was targeting programming expenses of $17 billion, flat with the year prior.
Starting with Netflix’s fourth-quarter 2022 earnings report, scheduled for Jan. 19, the company will not provide subscriber guidance for the next quarter (Q1 of 2023). Netflix will continue to provide guidance for revenue, operating income, operating margin, net income, EPS and fully diluted shares outstanding for the following quarter, but not paid membership.
