Netflix has appointed Dani Dudeck, a former senior exec at Instacart, Zynga and MySpace, as chief communications officer.
Dudeck will assume her new duties in mid-January, she wrote on LinkedIn.
Rachel Whetstone, former chief communications officer, left the company in October 2024. The tech veteran had been with the company since 2018, but decided not to pursue a refashioned role that would have blended public policy and communications. Dean Garfield, VP of Public Policy, departed along with Whetstone.
The streaming giant is entering a period when its messaging needs will arguably be greater than ever before. In the next few months, it will either be trying to close a pricey deal to acquire Warner Bros., having outdueled Paramount, or it will have lost out on the prize and need to convey the strength of its core business. Whether Netflix is pursuing Warner from a position of strength or as a way of addressing slowing growth is a question being debated on Wall Street and in the industry.
Watch on Deadline
“Storytelling shapes culture and few companies understand that better than Netflix,” Dudeck wrote in a LinkedIn update. “Becoming part of a company whose creativity and cultural impact reach hundreds of millions of people globally is a humbling honor. … I’m energized for what’s ahead and grateful to join one of the hardest-working, most inventive teams in entertainment, that 28 years in, is still redefining what’s possible.”
Dudeck joined Instacart in 2018, rising to the post of Chief Corporate Affairs Officer. Prior to that, she held senior communications posts at gaming firm Zynga and at MySpace when it was owned by News Corp. Prior to those corporate roles, Dudeck worked at agencies Hill+Knowlton and Edelman.