Bozoma Saint John Departs As Netflix Chief Marketing Officer

After less than two years as Netflix’s chief marketing officer, Bozoma Saint John is leaving the streaming giant.

Saint John, who joined the company in June 2020, will be replaced by Marian Lee, vice president of marketing for Netflix in the U.S. and Canada.

The company, which confirmed the moves on Thursday, did not elaborate on why Bozoma is departing. But in a statement, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos said he “loved working with Boz and have been inspired by her creativity and energy” and that she’s “attracted world class marketers to the company and encouraged them to be innovative leaders.”

Before joining Netflix in July, Lee spent nearly a decade at Spotify and also previously held marketing roles at Condé Nast and J. Crew. Sarandos described Lee as “a strategic marketer with deep experience not just in entertainment but also more broadly having worked at fashion and media brands.” 

“Netflix is an incredible brand with the best content and creative teams in the world,” Lee said in a statement. “I am confident our most exciting work is ahead of us and I am honored to lead this best-in-class global marketing team into the future, and continue to connect our incredible series and films with audiences around the globe.” 

Under Saint John’s leadership, Netflix has led a variety of pandemic-era campaigns, including an ad featuring its trademark “tu-dum” sound, an integration with the WWE to promote The Walking Dead and immersive experiences for hit shows like Stranger Things and Money Heist.

“I came to Netflix with a surplus of enthusiasm and creative energy and am immensely proud of the campaigns we inspired that sparked global conversations,” Saint John said in a statement. “It’s been a transformative two-year experience for which I will always be grateful.” 

CMOs are known for having the shortest tenures of all C-suite leaders, with the average CMO serving just 40 months in 2020, according to executive search firm Spencer Stuart. But notably, Saint John—who was ranked No. 1 on Forbes’ 2021 list of the World’s Most Influential CMOs—spent less than half that time in the role at Netflix. Over the past decade, she’s also held other senior marketing titles at several tech and entertainment companies. Prior to joining Netflix, she was the chief marketing officer of Endeavor, chief brand officer at Uber and head of marketing at Apple Music. And in May, she’ll be inducted into the American Marketing Association’s Marketing Hall Of Fame alongside inductees such as P&G Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard, former Facebook CMO Antonio Lucio and Pernod Ricard Chairman and CEO of North America Ann Mukherjee.

“Oftentimes we think we need to talk to the lowest common denominator or find the thing that unifies everyone and it’s actually quite the opposite,” Saint John said during an interview with Forbes in September. “It’s like, ‘what is unique about us?’ That’s what’s interesting. And so as a marketer, both of brands and of myself, I want to bring that unique difference into the conversation.”