Netflix Hires EA Exec Ken Barker as Principal Accounting Officer

Netflix has tapped longtime Electronic Arts finance government Ken Barker as principal accounting officer, reporting to CFO Spencer Neumann.

Netflix disclosed the choosing of Barker in an SEC submitting Monday. Barker starts off at Netflix on June 27.

”Mr. Barker is assuming the part of Principal Accounting Officer from Spencer Neumann, who proceeds to serve as the Company’s Chief Fiscal Officer and Principal Fiscal Officer,” the Netflix filing claims.

Beforehand, the major accounting exec at Netflix was JC Berger, VP of finance and world-wide controller, who labored at the corporation for the past 15 decades. Berger’s previous working day at Netflix was June 10.

Barker, 55, comes from online games organization Electronic Arts, most just lately as senior VP finance since August 2021, and as SVP and chief accounting officer from June 2003 to August 2021. He experienced labored at EA because 2003. Prior to becoming a member of EA, Mr. Barker labored at Sun Microsystems as company controller and at Deloitte as an audit companion.

Barker joins Netflix as the business has entered into a new — and unfamiliar — time period of expense-slicing. As element of efforts to rein in fees, the business last thirty day period laid off 150 employees, typically in the U.S., coming soon after a trimmed 25 positions in its marketing group.

Netflix amazed investors by reporting a web reduction of 200,000 subscribers for the very first quarter, and projected dropping another 2 million in Q2. On the streamer’s Q1 earnings job interview in April, Neumann claimed the company would be “responsible in terms of how we control the business” and stated “we’re pulling back on some of our spend growth across each written content and non-content invest, but nevertheless rising our spend and however investing aggressively into that lengthy-term possibility.”

Per Netflix’s filing, Barker will receive an yearly foundation income of $2.4 million and a $600,000 once-a-year stock possibility allowance less than Netflix’s stock choice software.

Barker serves on the board of administrators of non-gain firm AbilityPath and on the accounting advisory board for the College of Notre Dame. He holds a bachelor’s diploma in accounting from Notre Dame.

Neumann, who was earlier CFO of games business Activision Blizzard and a former Disney finance exec, was named Netlfix’s CFO in January 2019.