Woman of Power and former ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice will join the board of Netflix, the company announced.
“I am thrilled to be joining the board of directors of Netflix, a cutting-edge company whose leadership, high-quality productions, and unique culture I deeply admire,” said Rice.
Rice, 53, served under two presidents—first with the Bill Clinton administration from 1993 to 2007 and under President Barack Obama who appointed her as the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., making her the second youngest person and first African American woman to represent America at the U.N.
Rice began her career at Intellibridge as managing director before joining the Brookings Institute as a management consultant focused on U.S. foreign policy, national security issues, and global poverty. Rice left the Brookings Institute in 2008 to serve as then-candidate Barack Obama’s foreign policy advisor.
A contributing editor at The New York Times, Rice currently serves as Distinguished Visiting Research Fellow at American University’s School of International Service and as a non-resident senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
“We are delighted to welcome Ambassador Rice to the Netflix board,” said Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings. “For decades, she has tackled difficult, complex global issues with intelligence, integrity and insight and we look forward to benefiting from her experience and wisdom.”
While Michael B. Jordan announced just a week after the Oscars that he would be adopting the “inclusion rider,” Hastings, whose company is heralded as a prime example of diversity in broadcast programming said his company has no interest in doing such a thing.
Rice’s appointment comes in a month that has seen a number black women take board level roles in some of the world’s largest organizations. Etsy added Edith W. Cooper to its board. Richelle Parham also joined Best Buy’s board of directors and Intel added medical doctor Risa Lavizzo-Mourey to its board.
Rice previously held positions as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and as a Special Assistant to President Bill Clinton, as Senior Director, and Director of the National Security Council staff.
From 2009 to 2013, Rice served as U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN and as a cabinet member. In 2013, Rice directed the National Security Council staff, where she chaired the Cabinet-level National Security Principals committee providing daily national security briefings to President Obama. She was responsible for the formulation, coordination, and implementation of all aspects of the administration’s foreign and national security policy, intelligence and military efforts.
A Washington native, Rice is married to Ian Cameron, and they have two children.