Thursday, Mar. 29, 2012
Reed Hastings
Age: 51
Occupation: Netflix CEO
As the king of streaming entertainment, Netflix had a rocky 2011. After Hastings raised monthly prices and split the DVD-by-mail service into a new company called Qwikster, he swiftly backtracked on the decision when customers complained. Netflix lost subscribers in the mix, but 2012 is already looking smoother. The company, which ended last year with 2 billion hours of content streamed in the last quarter alone, jumped into original programming in February and has further expanded its presence overseas.