Joel Stillerman Out at Hulu Amid Exec Shakeup

Joel Stillerman, Hulu’s chief content officer, and Tim Connolly, its senior VP of partnerships and distribution, are both exiting the company, which has announced a strategic reorganization.

Hulu is reorganizing its business “to more effectively serve and delight consumers and drive overall growth,” the company said. It has hired a new chief technology officer, as well as its first chief data officer, and has put in place a new structure that aligns its executive management and teams around four strategic priorities: the subscriber journey, technology and products, content and advertising. The new structure, effective immediately, will bring more “agility, technical stability and alignment on the customer throughout Hulu as it increases its pace of growth and innovation.”

“As one of today’s top direct-to-consumer entertainment brands, led by technology, innovation and data, Hulu has an enormous opportunity to lead the media and advertising industries into the future,” said Hulu’s CEO, Randy Freer. “By adding new expertise and capabilities to our executive ranks and creating greater alignment around our customers, we are positioning Hulu to grow more rapidly, innovate more quickly and connect consumers even more deeply with the content they love.”

For “technology and products,” Dan Phillips, former COO at TiVo, has joined Hulu’s executive management team as CTO. “Dan brings deep technical expertise, strategic business sensibilities and a proven track record of driving large technology and product organizations through massive industry transformation,” said Freer. “He’s a strong operator who has had a front row seat to changing TV consumer behaviors for many years, and is the right fit to lead our technology and product teams as we continue to innovate and build a complete entertainment experience for the future.”

Chief Marketing Officer Kelly Campbell is expanding Hulu’s marketing organization to assume responsibility for the “subscriber journey”—from acquisition, engagement and retention to viewer experience and research—across all of Hulu’s on-demand and live TV plans. In addition, this group will now oversee Hulu’s subscriber partnerships, including its current relationships with Spotify and Sprint. Ben Smith, senior VP of experience, will retire in July.

Going forward, Hulu’s content teams will be organized into two groups, aligned around core capabilities: acquired on-demand and live content partners, and the creative community for Hulu originals. First, Hulu is combining its live TV and SVOD content licensing, acquisition and business functions into a single group: content partnerships. Second, the company’s original programming and its relationships with creators, producers and studios, will continue being managed by the Hulu originals team, but will now operate as a dedicated business function, led by Senior Vice President of Content Craig Erwich, who will report to Freer. Connolly and Stillerman are planning to exit. Hulu is conducting a search for a head of the new content partnerships group and is eliminating the chief content officer role. “Ben, Tim and Joel have all played a significant role in getting Hulu to the strong position it is in today. They will forever be a part of Hulu’s success story, and we wish them the very best in their next endeavors,” said Freer.

Hulu’s advertising sales group will continue reporting to Peter Naylor, senior VP of ad sales.

Jaya Kolhatkar, former senior VP of global data and analytics platform for Walmart, has been appointed to the newly created executive management role of chief data officer, reporting to Freer. Kolhatkar will be responsible for elevating Hulu’s customer intelligence, implementing strong data governance and driving a culture of objective, data-driven decision making across the company. She will officially join Hulu in its Santa Monica headquarters on July 2. “The combination of powerful content and deep consumer insights is what will define the future of media and advertising. With her years of experience managing, analyzing and governing data for many of the world’s largest companies, Jaya brings the strong leadership and expertise Hulu needs to deliver more meaningful experiences to consumers and more effective solutions to brands,” said Freer.

All of Hulu’s shared services functions—finance, legal, corporate communications, and talent and organization—will continue operating as usual, reporting directly to Freer.