Jason Alan Kilar (; born April 26, 1971) is an American businessman. He is a member of the boards of Wealthfront and

Roblox Roblox (, ) is an online game platform and game creation system developed by Roblox Corporation that allows users to program and play games created by themselves or other users. It was created by David Baszucki and Erik Cassel in 200 ...

, and was CEO of

WarnerMedia Warner Media, LLC (Trade name, doing business as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational corporation, multinational mass media and show business, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate owned by AT&T. It was headquartered at the 30 ...

, from May 2020 to April 2022. He was previously a five-year board member of Opendoor and was an

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

executive. Kilar is a co-founder of Vessel, and of

Hulu Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...

Early life and education

Kilar was born on April 26, 1971, in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

. His family moved to

Boca Raton, Florida Boca Raton ( ; ) is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The population was 97,422 in the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and it ranked as the 23rd-largest city in Florida in 2022. Many people with a Boca Raton Address, ...

, during his junior year and ended up graduating from Spanish River Community High School in 1989. He attended the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

, where he was a member of Sigma Nu fraternity. He graduated in 1993 and continued his education at

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

, earning an MBA in 1997.

Career

Kilar was an executive at

from 1997 to 2006, including as the senior vice president of its worldwide application software division. He helped found the streaming company

in 2007 and became its CEO. On January 4, 2013, he announced his resignation from the company after five years, together with Hulu CTO Rich Tom. The next month, Kilar joined the board of directors for

DreamWorks Animation DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA, also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios or simply DreamWorks) is an American animation studio, owned by Comcast's NBCUniversal as part of Universal Pictures, a division of Universal Studios, Inc, Universal Stud ...

. In 2014, he announced Vessel, a subscription video service, of which he was CEO. The company was backed by investment firms Benchmark, Greylock Partners, and Bezos Expeditions, and then sold to Verizon Communications in 2016. On April 1, 2020, WarnerMedia then-CEO John Stankey announced that Kilar would be assuming his CEO role effective May 1, 2020, and that Kilar would be reporting to Stankey, set to remain COO of

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

. On April 24, 2020, it was announced that Stankey would become CEO of AT&T on July 1, 2020. In December 2020, Kilar announced that Warner Bros. films released in 2021 would be released on HBO Max at the same time as they were released in theaters. The prior practice was to release films to theaters for a 90-day period before releasing them in other formats. The move was decried by many in Hollywood, including

Christopher Nolan Sir Christopher Edward Nolan (born 30 July 1970) is a British and American filmmaker. Known for his Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Blockbuster (entertainment), blockbusters with complex storytelling, he is considered a leading filmma ...

and Denis Villeneuve, while also being described as plainly violating the contractual rights of some of those who worked on the films. In March 2021, Kilar drew more ire by claiming that the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

was "really good for ratings" in conversation with

Fox Corporation Fox Corporation (commonly referred to as Fox Corp or simply Fox) is an American multinational mass media company headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas, 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan, with offices also in Burbank, Cali ...

Lachlan Murdoch Lachlan Keith Murdoch (; born 8 September 1971) is a British and Australian businessman and mass media heir. He is the son of the media Business magnate, tycoon Rupert Murdoch. He is the executive chairman of Nova Entertainment, chairman of N ...

. He later apologized for making this comment and added that "I would like nothing more than for this pandemic to be well behind us". Kilar announced on April 5, 2022, that he would be stepping down as the WarnerMedia CEO, amid the

merger Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

of WarnerMedia and Discovery, Inc.

Additional posts

He is a member of the board of directors of Wealthfront, and joined the

board in September 2023. In June 2024, he resigned from the board of directors of Opendoor, which he'd joined in 2019. Kilar has also been a board member of

, which he'd joined in 2013, Univision, Habitat for Humanity, and Brighter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kilar, Jason 1971 births American technology chief executives Harvard Business School alumni Living people UNC Kenan–Flagler Business School alumni Amazon (company) people Businesspeople from Pittsburgh American corporate directors DreamWorks Animation people Warner Bros. Discovery people 21st-century American businesspeople