Christie Hefner Resigning From Playboy In January

NEW YORK (AP) -- Playboy Enterprises says Christie Hefner, the daughter of founder Hugh Hefner, is stepping down as chairman and chief executive.

Playboy Enterprises Inc. has named Director Jerome Kern to serve as interim non-executive chairman while it looks for a replacement.

Hefner joined Playboy in 1975 and was named chairman and CEO in 1988. She will stay on as CEO until Jan. 31, 2009, and remain on the board until a new CEO joins the company.

In a statement, Hefner said the leadership change was her decision, but it follows signs of trouble for the Chicago-based publishing and entertainment company. In October, Playboy said it planned to cut 55 employees and eliminate 25 vacant positions due to the troubled economy.

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From Playboy's news release:

CHICAGO, December 8, 2008 - Christie Hefner today announced that she intends to step down as Playboy Enterprises, Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. She will stay on as CEO until January 31, 2009, and will remain as a member of the board until a new CEO joins the company. Playboy (PEI) (NYSE: PLA, PLAA) also said that the board will begin looking for a replacement immediately, and that it has appointed Jerome Kern, a long-time director of the company and an experienced media executive, to serve as interim non-executive chairman.

Kern said: "In the course of her tenure, Christie has overseen Playboy's transition from a domestic magazine publisher to a global lifestyle and multi-media company. She directed the company's entry into TV, online and mobile and helped each of those businesses reach profitability. Under her leadership, the Licensing Group grew from insignificance to become the company's most profitable business. Christie's commitment to the company has been unparalleled, and we are pleased that she has agreed to stay on to help oversee the transition. We wish her all the best in her future endeavors."

"Playboy Enterprises Inc. has literally and figuratively been my life and career for more than 30 years," Hefner said. "Last month marked my 20th anniversary as CEO; just as this country is embracing change in the form of new leadership, I have decided that now is the time to make changes in my own life as well. I believe the company's businesses are well positioned for future growth, and I can leave the company confident that the current management team will be able to capitalize on our achievements and the opportunities in development.

"I have had a remarkable career with Playboy. I never expected to go into the family business, much less to stay here this long, but I have enjoyed the challenges and opportunities the past decades have presented. It has been a privilege to be part of the company's dedicated team of employees, and I look forward to helping the board find a successor who can work effectively with this talented group of people," Hefner said.

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner said: "I asked Christie to step up as president when the company faced serious financial difficulties more than two decades ago. She has worked tirelessly to expand the company's franchise, and, as a result of her efforts, the company today has more consumers and fans than at any time in our history. Of course, as her father, my first priority is Christie's happiness. While I will miss her leadership here, I believe that she will go on to achieve even greater personal success."

Kern joined Playboy's board of directors in 2002. He is a partner in Enki Strategic Advisors and president of Kern Consulting, L.L.C., which he founded in 2001 after serving as chairman and CEO of On Command Corporation. Prior to joining On Command, he served as vice chairman and a member of the board of Tele-Communications Inc., or TCI.

Comments

[LynnW49]

Who cares?

[ali-remixamerica]

Christie Hefner is one of the most remarkable women I have met in my lifetime and a role model for all that corporate executives should be. People harp on Playboy's exploitation of women (which I argue is both incorrect and oddly Puritanical) while ignoring the fact that Playboy has also published some of the greatest talents of our time: Ian Fleming, Kurt Vonnegut, Margaret Atwood, Leroy Neiman, Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali, Joyce Carol Oates, Arthur C. Clarke, Tom Clancy among many others. Alex Haley published outstanding interviews with MLK Jr. and Malcolm X. Oddly, these artists do not have the same issues with Playboy that some here at HP have displayed. I am a heterosexual woman and have enjoyed Playboy since I was a teenager.

Christie is among the top corporate fundraisers for charitable causes. She has worked tirelessly for multiple charities including supporting numerous women's shelters as well as important work for the First Amendment. In fact, she created the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award bringing attention to some of the most important activists of our time. She also helped to raise $30 million to build the CORE Center in Chicago, the first outpatient facility in the Midwest for people with AIDS.

After 20 years as Playboy's chairman, she has said she envisions the next chapter of her life as one that is more about giving back. For a woman that has already given back such an enormous amount, I look forward to seeing her next accomplishments.

[lilkunta]

@ali remix america
What is so remarkable about her?
A role model is the mighty Oprah. A role model is Mia Farrow. A role model in Susan Sarandon. A role model is Ellen Sirleauf.

Perhaps she is a top corporate fundraiser bc she has guilt about playboy?

[ali-remixamerica]

That's what's great about our world: you get to have your role models, others get to have theirs. And there is not a limited number of them -- in this case it is truly the more the merrier. All of the women you mentioned are amazing, yet I bet they all have "guilt" in their lives as well for a myriad of things, although I, personally, see no reason why Christie should have guilt about Playboy. Yet it is what one does with it that makes the difference. Susan Sarandon may lead the pack in her arena, that does not make the accomplishments of Christie Hefner any less. While Mia Farrow has done great humanitarian work, particularly for Darfur, Christie has raised millions for AIDS patients. I think I was pretty clear how Christie has already given back, but if you want to read more, the internet is at your fingertips. As for trying to denigrate one woman's accomplishments because other women have done great things as well, that I just do not understand. I think they should all be celebrated. However, this article was about Christie, so it is her accomplishments I am highlighting.

[YeahDonkey]

The only problem with Playboy is that they tried to turn it into some lame version of Maxim but with full frontal, and they failed miserably. As far as exploitation is concerned......are you serious? Playboy? LOL

[Pronto]

This isn't a fair statement because we all get older but . . . Christie looks old.

[lmvd3]

Maybe she's tired of having a huge hand in Playboy's sickening objectification of women.

[toppermost]

It is terrible how they pay the girls hundreds of thoousands of dollars at a time... poor things. I wish I could get paid @ss loads of money to stand in front of a camera and blink.

[Beachrunner]

Funny, she's been the Playboy overseer of the exploitation of women for all these years, and now she quits. Probably sell all her stock and move to an island somewhere. I see some irony here . . . .

[travelaholic]

I look at the work Christie has done, and IMHO, she has built a grade-A brand and has been a very favorable role model for women in business. When the board didn't approve Playboy's internet strategy, she self-funded the move which allowed for distribution far greater than was there before. If she hadn’t done it, the brand would have waned. This is unexpected. I just hope she's not sick.

Oh, and as a gay guy, I don't get to technically vote on the "objectification" issue. But as far as porn goes it is far from degrading. Trust me on this one. You should take a look at the coffee table book on the Celebrity Centerfolds from the last 50 years. Excellent photography, world-class set design, and in charge women (athletes, actors, ballerinas, etc.) who appear to me to rule both their bodies and their lives without fear.

[VoteforPedro]

Dollars to donuts, Sarah Palin does a spread within 12 months.

[Theda]

"dollars to donuts" is a silly expression.

[hortonhearsawho]

Women of the Frontier!

[toppermost]

After FIVE kids??

NO FREAKING THANK YOU

[zizizzi]

Airbrush & CGI will remove any "imperfections" brought on by birthing 5 kids.

[lilkunta]

pedro
Be serious. Palin wont ever do a playboy spread.

[Libertine58]

Ew, ew, ew

[TomTheAlmostUgly]

I subscribed to Playboy when I was fifteen and sixteen. Back then, my only source of "income" was my allowance and report-card bonus, which meant that my Playboy subscription was KILLER expensive. So you bet your bippy, I read all the articles! Every article, every issue.

Of course, I didn't JUST read the articles...

[Dolphinfan65]

Wow, I guess internet porn has killed there readership (lol)

[carex]

Playboy magazine was never really about porn.........anyone who grew up in the sixties and seventies could relate to how it enhanced personal freedom and lifestyle. Granted, this was pre aids, so the lifestyle needed to evolve and change to protect partners.

At this stage though I must say, Hefner and the 19 year olds does seem pathetic and sad. He uses them, they use him and move on. In ones eighties though it does appear shallow and
superficial. Just icky.

[Lawguy07]

Does she have as many boyfriends as her pathetically sad octogenarian father has barely legal girlfriends? Time to put Playboy in the dinosaur graveyard with love beads and mood rings. Not so groovy anymore...

[onlinesavant]

If you don't like Playboy, don't read. Hefner does not make anyone do anything. All those "barely legal girlfriends" are indeed, legal. And as such, they enter into what-ever relationship they have with Hefner williingly and with full understanding of what it is they're doing. Make no mistake, sex will always sell, especially in a hypocritcally and specious puritanical country. So, don't count Playboy out. It is an American, and global icon, and it trades in the ultimate commodity.

[lmvd3]

So is General Motors, and we all know how that's going...

[bandillero]

Good. That means she can pose now?

[easarsfield]

I am truly amazed at some of the comments on here.

Christie is a respectable business woman, and a very nice lady in person.

Some of the posters on here obviously don't get Playboy, and that's sad. How are they exploiting women that WANT to take their clothes off?? Fashion magazines exploit models too, I don't hear too many people ragging on them. Playboy promotes much healthier versions of the female form then say, Victoria’s Secret (although both publications feature larger, often times unnaturally large boobs).

[BeasleysMom]

Breasts

[huffyISaHottie]

where!!!!!

[lmvd3]

Just because women willing go along with exploitation for whatever reason, doesn't mean exploitation isn't happening. Whether she is nice or not is no gauge of anything. Many of Hitler's top men in the SS were the greatest family men and the politest of neighbors.

[toppermost]

You are hilarious! Please start a blog.

[entropyisfun]

Lol

[lilkunta]

@easarsfield
Is it that ladies WANT 2 tak off their clothes? They want a car, fame, & $ so they use their body. PB def isnt a scholarship program the way the beauty pagents claim.

How do fashiom mags exploit models? Models have agents and are paid. They wear expensive sometimes very stupid looking "couture" clothes, they rnt naked.

Lastly, how does PB promote healthier lady bodys than vVic Secret? The ladies in Playboy are always Anglo & HIspanic. They all dye/bleach their hair blonde and have implants.
Vic Secret ladies lately are alot of Brasilians. They also have AfrAm, Carribeans, Africans, Germans, etc. They have small breasts ( A cup) and wear breast enhancers for the catalog, commercials, etc.

[Stranded]

I worked for Playboy magazine from 1990 to 1993, in the Production Department. The offices are designed so that the executives sit behind glass walls, and it's that sense of transparency that impressed me about Ms. Hefner. She was always the most gracious and engaged executive, funny and articulate, and really had a passion for her job.

It may be true that the majority of Playboy readers are men, but it's not a vast majority. You'd be surprised by how many women also subscribe. I've never liked the way women are portrayed in the US edition (the Japanese edition contains much sexier, less airbrushed, real women...), but I wouldn't call it exploitation, just fantasy. But if it's exploitation, please be advised that the majority of department heads in my section were female. Women exploit women too.

Playboy is a smart and very well edited magazine. It has a long history of incredible illustration, along with the best interview format I've ever seen. Hugh Hefner's vision of a sophisticated upscale magazine that would appeal to the tastes of men and women with a wide array of interests will always be viable. I wish Ms. Hefner well.

[QueenOfViolets]

I watched that silly show Girls Next Door once and they showed him in the process of editing. He's a brilliant editor. He should be the subject of college journalism courses in magazine editing.

[lmvd3]

"Women exploit women too". Well said. And so sad that people can't find a job where they don't exploit others for money.

[FlamingLibrul]

Thanks for the insight into what it was like working for Playboy. I'm a little surprised at the intensity of the "Gloria Steinem" responses to Playboy and Christie Hefner, and I say this as a woman. I too view Playboy magazine as having many redeeming qualities. Like it or not, the Hugh Hefner's and Larry Flint's of the world made it possible for all of us to enjoy the wide range of freedoms of expression we have today.

Think about it. These men that many consider smut peddlers, pushed the boundaries of society in ways that benefited the First Amendment for all Americans. I too wish Ms. Hefner the best of luck in the coming changes in her life.

[ginsushark]

is playboy still being published? i thought it disappeared in the 70s.

Always thought Hef was a high profile pimp for the Chicago Mob. Hef's daughter is nepitism gone wrong. a zig when it should have been a zag. goodbye to a bygone era.

[Wolfgang]

Playboy is making a ton of money from its cable TV station. They also own the Spice network. The magazine is just a minor part of its empire. I doubt that she really ran it. I think that she was just the front person.

[lmvd3]

I'll be you're right because how critical can the critics be when an exploitative magazine is run by a woman? A brilliant move, but too bad she didn't pick up on it. Sounds like everyone is exploiting everyone at Playboy.

[Cogs]

Hogh Hefner takes too much credit for changing how we view sex in the country.

[DogTown]

Hugh Hefner changed the world!
You must be a younger person?