CuriosityStream, the documentary-focused subscription streaming service, has hired Peter Westley as its new chief financial officer. He will replace Jason Eustace, who has served as the company’s CFO since February 2020.
Westley is coming from Blum Capital Partners, where he spent nearly a decade as partner and managing partner, focusing on the media and technology sectors. He spearheaded an approximate $200 million investment of new ventures and real estate for the Blum family office, his LinkedIn profile shows.
Prior to working at Blum Capital, Westley had served six years as managing director at Salomon Smith Barney, where he founded the company’s Online Media investment banking franchise.
In addition to his financial expertise, Westley has held executive positions on several company boards. He has been chairman of the board of directors at Avid Technology since January 2016. During his first three years as chairman, Westley helped increase Avid’s market cap from $200 million to over $1.2 billion.
Westley has also served as a board member at Tideline Marine Group and Payless ShoeSource. He was a board observer for CuriosityStream from 2018 through 2020.
"In addition to his deep financial background and tech sector acumen, Peter brings a wealth of keen strategic thinking to corporate growth and development projects well-known in the media industry," said John Hendricks, chairman of CuriosityStream's board, in a statement. "All of us at Curiosity were impressed with the experienced guidance and recommendations he offered as board observer from 2018 through 2020."
“[CuriosityStream] has a truly inspiring mission, differentiated offering, deep library of factual content, and rapidly growing global subscriber base,” Westley also said in a statement. “I look forward to working with the team to pursue the company’s strategic growth opportunities, drive improved financial performance, and build shareholder value in the years to come.”
Westley in his new role will report to Clint Stinchcomb, president and CEO of CuriosityStream. Bringing in Westley may help Curiosity achieve positive cash flow from operations by 2023 – a goal the company outlined on its Q1 2022 earnings call. Stinchcomb highlighted during the call Curiosity plans to focus both on subscriber engagement and boosting viewers via ad-supported content.
Since going public in October 2020, CuriosityStream has steadily gained its subscriber base– counting a total of 24 million paid subscribers at the end of March. The company also launched in March its first FAST channel, Curiosity Now, which is currently available on LG smart TVs.