- WarnerMedia, the media and entertainment giant owned by AT&T, announced it has hired Hulu founder and former CEO Jason Kilar as the head of the company
WarnerMedia, the media and entertainment giant owned by AT&T, announced it has hired Hulu founder and former CEO Jason Kilar as the head of the company starting in May. Kilar is succeeding John Stankey. Stankey was recently promoted to president and COO of AT&T. Kilar will be reporting to Stankey.
Along with launching Hulu in 2007, Kilar also founded a streaming platform called Vessel — which was acquired by Verizon in 2016.
The WarnerMedia brand includes HBO, Turner, and Warner Bros. Next month, HBO is launching a stream service called HBO Max. The WarnerMedia brands also include CNN, Turner Sports (including Bleacher Report), TBS, TNT, The CW, TruTV, Cinemax, Otter Media (Crunchyroll, Fullscreen, Hello Sunshine, and Rooster Teeth), Warner Bros. Pictures (including New Line Cinema, DC Films, and Castle Rock).
“Jason is a dynamic executive with the right skill set to lead WarnerMedia into the future. His experience in media and entertainment, direct-to-consumer video streaming and advertising is the perfect fit for WarnerMedia, and I am excited to have him lead the next chapter of WarnerMedia’s storied success,” said Stankey. “Our team led by Bob Greenblatt, Ann Sarnoff, Gerhard Zeiler and Jeff Zucker has done an amazing job establishing our brands as leaders in the hearts and minds of consumers. Adding Jason to the talented WarnerMedia family as we launch HBO Max in May gives us the right management team to strategically position our leading portfolio of brands, world-class talent and rich library of intellectual property for future growth.”
Prior to launching Hulu, Kilar also worked as a senior executive at Amazon between 1997 and 2006. And Kilar also served on the boards of DreamWorks Animation and Univision.
