Netflix named Strive Masiyiwa, founder and chairman of telecom and tech company Econet Group, to its board of directors.
Masiyiwa’s appointment to the streamer’s board comes a week after Susan Rice, former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said she was relinquishing her Netflix board seat to join president-elect Joe Biden’s administration as of Jan. 20, 2021.
Masiyiwa, who has an estimated net worth of $1 billion, heads up Econet, which has operations and investments in 29 countries in Africa and Europe. He launched mobile phone network Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, his native country, in 1998.
“We are delighted to welcome Strive to the Netflix board,” Netflix co-founder, chairman and co-CEO Reed Hastings said in a statement. “His entrepreneurship and vision in building businesses across Africa and beyond will bring valuable insights and experience to our board as we work to improve and serve more members all around the world.”
Strive serves on several international boards including Unilever Plc, National Geographic Society, Asia Society, and the Global Advisory boards of Bank of America, the Council on Foreign Relations (in the US), Stanford University, and the Prince of Wales Trust for Africa, and is a longstanding board member of the United States Holocaust Museum's Committee on Conscience. A former board member of the Rockefeller Foundation for 15 years, he is Chairman Emeritus of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and African Union Special Envoy to the continent's COVID response.