Professional social network LinkedIn is adding another member to its board, Netflix Chief Marketing Officer Leslie Kilgore. LinkedIn, which has 65 million members, recently named former Ask.com CEO Skip Battle to its board, joining founder and chairman Reid Hoffman, current CEO Jeff Weiner, Greylock’s David Sze, and Sequoia’s Marc Kvamme.
Kilgore joined Netflix in 2000 and has helped the company grow its subscriber base from fewer than 100,000 to more than 13 million subscribers. Prior to joining Netflix, Kilgore was director of marketing for Amazon.com, and also held positions at Procter & Gamble and Booz, Allen and Hamilton.
Of course, the appointment of Kilgore and Battle to the board is interesting when you consider that both executives have significant experience in advising technology companies through the IPO process. Kilgore, of course, has helped Netflix go public and Battle serves on the board of OpenTable, Expedia and Netflix.
Is an IPO in LinkedIn’s future? CEO Jeff Weiner isn’t ruling out any possibilities, but the idea has certainly been bandied about quit a bit. While LinkedIn is a strong IPO candidate, LinkedIn co-founder and Chairman Reid Hoffman told us at TechCrunch50 last fall that he’s not in any rush to go public. Later, Hoffman told Reuters that the company plans to pursue an IPO at some point, but not any time soon.The company was valued at around $1 billion in its last round of financing in 2008, and has been profitable since 2007.
