Darshan Kantak is joining Netflix as vice president of its ads platform.
In this new role, Kantak will lead the teams building the advertising experience on the service and enable reporting and operational tools for Netflix Ads Suite partners.
“What drew me to Netflix is the chance to use that technology to build impactful solutions,” Kantak said. These include “ads that feel relevant and welcome for members, and technical tools that make advertising even more innovative and effective. I look forward to building that with the team.”
He was previously VP of product at Google Cloud’s Applied AI, and has also worked at Snap Inc., Meta, Microsoft, and Yahoo.
Reporting to Amy Reinhard, president of advertising, Kantak will have oversight of the advertising product, engineering, and data & insights teams developing strategic ad platform initiatives for Netflix around the world.
“Darshan’s expertise spans from innovative technical skills to unique AI tooling and operations, all of which I’m excited for him to bring to the Netflix ads business,” said Reinhard.
His appointment comes at an interesting time for the streamer, as its in-house ad platform last month announced updates that included new measurement capabilities and an expanded programmatic offering.
These new Netflix Ads Suite updates come as the streamer was expecting to double its advertising revenue for the second consecutive year. But during its Q3 earnings call last month, Netflix said it was lowering that amount to $2.7 billion because of a “slightly slower than expected rollout of some ad product capabilities.”
Amid all that, Netflix has recently undergone major personnel changes, including in its leadership ranks, such as the departure of chief content officer Bela Bajaria, who was replaced by Peter Rice, a former Disney and Fox exec. The media company also laid off about 6% of its staff, or about 1,000 employees, earlier this month.
Other major names who recently departed Netflix include film boss Dan Lin and TV executives Lisa Lang McMullen, James Oh, Carolina Garcia, and Andrew McQuinn. Doug Belgrad, Netflix’s film VP, also exited the company.
