IMDb Founder Steps Down As CEO After 35 Years

IMDb founder Col Needham is stepping down as CEO after 35 years, transitioning to executive chair. He will be succeeded by Nikki Santoro, who has served as the chief operating officer since 2021. TechCrunch reports: Santoro's appointment is significant, as she is the first woman to become the CEO and only the second person to hold the position. Needham founded IMDb in 1990 at the age of 23, steering the company into a powerhouse within the entertainment industry. After 35 years, he'll transition to a new role as executive chair.

According to Needham, Santoro's ascension is well deserved. [...] Santoro has been with the company since 2016, leading the company in expanding its database and improving its IMDbPro membership. She previously held leadership positions at Amazon, Microsoft, and The Weather Channel. "Nikki's strategic vision, deep understanding of our customers and products, and commitment to innovation have already delivered impressive business results during her tenure as COO," said Needham in a statement. "Her track record of driving growth and enhancing our products and services makes her the ideal person to guide IMDb into a new era."

Re:

[coopertempleclause]

Unlikely unless they have a way to prevent very average people ( who believe people in spandex fighting a sky beam is the pinnacle of entertainment ) from voting.

"Then he did a backflip, snapped the bad guy's neck and saved the day! Five stars!!!"

Significant?

[Local ID10T]

Santoro's appointment is significant, as she is the first woman to become the CEO and only the second person to hold the position.

I'm not sure being the first woman CEO in the company's history is such a big deal when she is the second CEO (first after the founder). Being a woman CEO is not that big a deal. There are a lot of them. This is 2025 not 1925. Welcome to the 21st century.

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[TomR teh Pirate]

Women comprise 9.2% of Fortune 1000 companies. At a 9:1 ratio of men to women in such roles, you're totally right in asserting that this woman getting a high-visibility job isn't noteworthy. Thanks for helping keep things in perspective

Re:Significant?

[SeaFox]

It's really not noteworthy to be the first woman CEO in IMDB's history when they are only the second CEO the company has had.
Literally no one has had a chance, man or woman, to be the CEO until now, so it's not like they were avoiding having a woman and she's broken some glass ceiling at this company.

To put it another way, if a man succeeds Santoro as CEO in the future he will be able to claim the spot as "only the second man to lead IMDB in over (35+x) years!"

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[ocean_soul]

Corporate pr newspeak is actually meaningless drivel, who would've thought.

The site went downhill years ago

[alvinrod]

I've found myself using IMDB less and less over the years. I think it mostly comes down to basic web design and making relevant information harder to get at or requiring more clicks to navigate to, but they also paywalled some of the useful data about production budgets, etc. that I would occasionally want to look up. I probably would have thought the original owner sold the site a long time ago given how it comes across as being far more pimped out these days than I remember it being fifteen years ago.

Perhaps we'll eventually come full circle and return to simple web design with minimal CSS and JavaScript bloat.

Re:The site went downhill years ago

[Burdell]

The original owner DID sell the site a long time ago... Amazon bought it in 1998. It's been operated as a subsidiary since, with the founder staying on as CEO of the subsidiary until now.

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[geekmux]

The original owner DID sell the site a long time ago... Amazon bought it in 1998. It's been operated as a subsidiary since, with the founder staying on as CEO of the subsidiary until now.

Gosh, it seems like only last century when staying on for a CEO meant something a tad shorter than hang around long enough to father the next one.

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[misexistentialist]

The forums were the best feature, but poor little Amazon didn't have the resources to run them.

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[sabbede]

Yeah, they really made it less useful by trying to make it look fancier. It used to be far easier to read and navigate.

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[BigIrv]

I mostly use Wikipedia to look up movie information.

IMDB is a perfect enshitification example.

Sad.

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[Strepto]

Yeah the modern IMDB is a dumpsterfire of design compared to what is used to be. Amazon have progressively enshittified it over the years.

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[antdude]

What are good replacements for IMDb? I missed its forum. https://moviechat.org/ [moviechat.org] is good for its forum replacement.

A long road

[PhantomHarlock]

I remember when IMDb was a CSV file you would download and run through a local parser to view and search. That was the first couple of years. It's nice that it's survived more or less in-tact through the years and through Amazon's ownership. Yea, it's heavily laden with commercial promotion these days, but underneath that, all my favorite stuff is still there (trivia, goofs, etc.)

The reason it is still around and profitable is that it has become a valuable industry resource for research and information,

Re:

[drinkypoo]

It's nice that it's survived more or less in-tact through the years and through Amazon's ownership.

It's alive, but most of the features I used to use are paywalled, and there is no monetary benefit to me to using them so there is no chance I will pay.

Resurrect The Forums

[Un-Thesis]

Maybe the new CEO will resurrect the IMDB Forums???

There was a great void that has never been replaced.

Re:

[ocean_soul]

Or turn back any of the other enshitification that has infested he website the last five to ten year? I wouldn't hold my breath.

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[dargaud]

Yes, the forum on the movies was invaluable for discussions. I was deeply pissed when that went away.
The forum on the actors/actresses themselves... not so much. It was a cesspit of abuse, one way or another (I'll let you imagine).

Meh... "Pro" required to do anything

[sid crimson]

My brother had a bunch of credits to his name, but he never updated his IMDB profile. Upon his passing, I took it upon myself to do so... added an avatar photo, corrected a few errors, made sure it was as perfect as could be. Little did I recognize (probably it's in the fine print) that as soon as I unsubscribed to the paid version that all of my updates would disappear. Oh well, sorry bro. I'll honor you in other ways...

Someone's definition of significant leaves

[sabbede]

something to be desired. That the new CEO will be the "first woman" to hold the position is made far less significant by the fact that she will only be the second person to hold the position. And why would it be significant at all?

Gettiing to balance

[will4]

It's good to see society widely accept as a normal course of events a woman becoming an corporate executive.

Those are common events today.