Elizabeth Stone Is one of TIME's 2026 Executives of the Year: Tech and Data

“The future of entertainment is impossible to define as one thing,” says Elizabeth Stone. Promoted to Netflix’s chief product and technology officer in February after more than two years as its CTO, Stone’s remit expanded as the company continued its push to diversify beyond on-demand film and TV. In the role, Stone oversees the technology and product changes needed to make live programming, games, podcasts, and shorter-form video feel like parts of a single cohesive service.

Doing so required rebuilding what viewers see, as well as the infrastructure underpinning it. After rolling out a redesigned TV experience in 2025, Netflix revamped its mobile app and personalised vertical-video feed this year. The streaming giant’s live operation has also grown to more than 200 events annually. Stone says Netflix’s coverage of the World Baseball Classic in Japan—dozens of live games screened over several weeks—is the best evidence of how far that technology has matured. (The tournament reached 31.4 million viewers in Japan.) As Netflix expands its content offerings, Stone’s biggest challenge now is preventing greater choice from creating greater friction for users.