Reed Hastings and His Wife Do More Than Netflix and Chill in Their Free Time

Behind every billionaire philanthropist is a partner who takes as much interest in his or her work, but might not always be recognized for it. And when Netflix CEO Reed Hastings donated $120 million to historically Black colleges and universities, people couldn't help but wonder about his wife and what hand she plays in all of his philanthropy.

As it turns out, Reed’s wife, Patricia Ann Quillin, is a philanthropist herself and well-known in their circles for her work. Unlike Reed, Patricia isn't currently the head of a multi-billion-dollar corporation, but as the woman at his side, she can easily take some of the credit for the projects Reed has become known for in service of others.

Once upon a time, Patricia worked as the president of the Santa Cruz Natural History Museum. These days, however, her time is more often spent helping her husband with any number of their charity projects while he runs the largest streaming platform in the world. So you know, totally no big deal or anything.

While there isn't much out there about Reed’s wife overall and the couple appears to keep their private life off social media, it's clear that they have been together for years and are more of a team than Patricia simply falling in step behind Reed. She also spends her time with their two children, multiple shelter dogs, and farm animals. That’s right — somehow, in between donating millions of dollars and plenty of time to charitable causes, Patricia finds the time to play with goats.

You might as well consider Patricia and Reed couples goals. Reed is well-known for taking six weeks of vacation time each year and has spoken out about it. He has said that it actually helps his productivity to be able to take a step back, and chances are, his family doesn't hate it. It's unclear if Patricia takes the same approach, but the policy seems to have worked for Reed thus far.

"I take a lot of vacation, and I’m open about it internally," Reed said at the 2015 The New York Times DealBook Conference. "Just as you would expect, you often do your best thinking [when] you’re off hiking on some mountain or something and you get a different perspective… Or you’re reading something that’s not connected to work."

Reed and Patricia donating $120 million to HBCUs isn't the only thing they have done or are in the process of doing to use their wealth and power to help others. According to Vox, public filings show proof that Reed is building a luxury compound in Colorado to help teachers and the education system overall. In 2016, Reed and Patricia donated $100 million to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation for education, so this comes as no surprise. 

While Reed and Patricia’s $120 million donation is nothing new in terms of their desire to give back for the sake of education, it comes at a time when Black colleges and universities need it more than ever. And even though Patricia isn't in the public eye as much as her husband, it's clear that in these matters, they are something of a team.