Christie Hefner

A seasoned professional with more than thirty years’ experience at executive levels in both public and private companies, as well as multiple company directorships. Christie presently serves on the boards of the Offutt Companies, Scent Beauty, Public Good, and Metro Edge as well as being a strategic advisor to CEOs.

Previously, Christie served in a variety of executive positions with Playboy Enterprises, a NYSE listed company, culminating in 20 years as Chairman and CEO. She was widely credited with developing and leading the execution of strategies that repositioned the company from its legacy domestic magazine business to a global multi-media and lifestyle company and building its institutional shareholder base. Her strengths include brand building, marketing, M&A, and global business development.

She also serves on the steering committee of Press Forward Chicago, the advisory committee of Leadership in Society, and the board of the Center for American Progress Action.

Executive Experience:

From 2009-2015, Christie developed the strategy of forming a new entity, Canyon Ranch Enterprises, to leverage the Canyon Ranch brand and content. This entailed building a multi-media strategy including app’s, a robust healthy living site, DVD’s, books and radio programming, as well as assembling the resources and forging the partnerships to execute that strategy. Additionally, under her direction, the company developed personalized subscription digital coaching programs and forged business partnerships in the healthy eating, personal care and employee wellness areas.

From 1988-2008, Hefner was Chairman and CEO of Playboy Enterprises, Inc. making her the longest serving female Chairman and CEO of a U.S. public company. During her tenure, she oversaw policy, management and strategy in all areas of the company. When she left, over 40% of her executives were women. For three years she was named to FORTUNE’s list of “Most Powerful Women.”

At Playboy Enterprises, Christie restored financial integrity, broadened institutional ownership and revived investor confidence. Additionally, she recapitalized the Company, making it the first NYSE corporation allowed to issue a second class of stock with disparate voting rights. She restructured operations and initiated the Company’s highly successful electronic and international expansion.

She extended its magazine franchise overseas, to 25 localized foreign editions and also developed the company’s profitable pay television business — the first time a magazine successfully leveraged its brand into a television network. Continuing the Company’s electronic expansion, in 1994 Christie led the Company onto the Internet with the launch of Playboy.com, the first national magazine to launch a web site, and built an international, profitable, multi-revenue stream business including premium content, e-commerce, advertising and gaming, both online and mobile.

She also built a highly profitable direct marketing, catalog and e-commerce business in film and music through both acquisition and organic growth. She greatly expanded the leveraging of the Playboy brand via licensing. In her last year as CEO, Playboy generated close to $1 billion in global retail sales, 80% of the sales to women.

She was a founding member of The Chicago Network, The Committee of 200, and the Chicago Chapter of Women Corporate Directors, and she was the first woman elected into the Chicago Chapter of the Young Presidents’ Organization.

Elected to Phi Beta Kappa in her junior year of college, she graduated from Brandeis University summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and American literature.