Susan Rice Rejoins Netflix Board of Directors

Susan Rice has rejoined Netflix’s board of directors, after leaving the Biden administration this spring,

Netflix said in an SEC filing Friday that Rice’s appointment to the board occurred on Sept. 6, effective immediately. She will hold office as a Class I director with a term expiring at the company’s annual meeting of stockholders in 2024. Rice has not yet been appointed to serve as a member of any board committees.

Rice will receive an annual retainer of $300,000 as compensation for her service as Netflix director, which will be payable monthly and prorated for the remainder of 2023.

Rice, an alum of the Obama administration, had previously joined Netflix’s board in March 2018 before announcing in December 2020 that she was joining Biden’s White House as director of domestic policy. Netflix has other ties to the Obamas, including most directly through its overall deal inked in 2018 with Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions to produce series and movies for the streamer.

With Rice rejoining the Netflix board, it has 13 members. The other board members are: co-founder and executive chairman Reed Hastings; Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters; Anne Sweeney, former president of Disney-ABC Television Group; Richard Barton, executive chairman of Zillow Group and founder of Expedia; Timothy Haley, managing director at Redpoint Ventures; Jay Hoag, general partner at Technology Crossover Ventures; Leslie Kilgore, former Netflix chief marketing officer; Ann Mather, ex-CFO of Pixar and Village Roadshow Pictures, former Disney exec; Brad Smith, president of Microsoft; Mathias Döpfner, chairman and CEO of German media company Axel Springer; and Strive Masiyiwa, founder and chairman of telecom and tech company Econet Group.

Rice served as a key adviser to President Obama during his two terms in office. From 2013-17, she headed the National Security Council staff, providing daily national security briefing to President Obama. Before that, she was the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. from 2009-13 and served as a member of Obama’s cabinet. Rice has been a target for conservative critics who have criticized her over her comments about the September 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Previously, during President Bill Clinton’s second term, Rice was U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and was a member of the National Security Council staff. She was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution from 2002-08.

Rice began her career as a management consultant with McKinsey and Co. She has served on several boards, including those for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Bureau of National Affairs, National Democratic Institute, and the US Fund for UNICEF. The Washington, D.C., native is married to former ABC News executive producer Ian Cameron, and the couple have two children.