Netflix promotes Rendich to DVD-operations chief

PHYSICAL: Former VP joined company in 1999

By Danny King -- Video Business, 5/5/2009

MAY 5 | PHYSICAL: Netflix promoted VP of operations Andrew Rendich to the newly created position of chief service and DVD operations officer of the largest U.S. movie-rental service via mail.

Rendich, who joined Netflix 10 years ago, will oversee the company's 58 distribution centers, which spend more than $450 million shipping its DVDs through the U.S. Postal Service each year, the company said in a statement today. Last month, Netflix said it would roll out Saturday operations—the company had previously shipped only five days a week—to all of its distribution centers this year.

"Andy's expertise and leadership in this area have been a major factor in our ability to scale the Netflix business over the last decade," CEO Reed Hastings said in the statement.

As Netflix augments its by-mail service with video-streaming product, the company continues to grow its DVD shipping operations and has estimated that DVD subscribers will peak between 2013 and 2018. The company's first-quarter net income jumped 68% after it expanded its subscriber base by 25% to 10.31 million from a year earlier.

Rendich, 41, joined Netflix in 1999 as a software developer and was promoted to VP of operations in 2007.