WESTWOOD, Calif. — Cooper Hefner announced today that he has taken over a new role at Playboy Enterprises Inc., stepping down from the company's chief creative slot.
Hefner is moving onto the role of chief of global partnerships at the company, which was once owned by his father, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.
Hugh Hefner founded Playboy in Chicago in 1953 and passed away in September 2017 at the Playboy Mansion in the Westwood-area’s Holmby Hills neighborhood. The family’s trust sold its last shares in the company in August, and the company is now wholly operated by Icon Acquisition Holdings Inc.
Cooper Hefner has held on to the chief creative officer position since 2016. At the time of his hiring his prime focus was “on the creative strategy around [Playboy’s] continuing transformation into a millennial facing lifestyle brand and the reinvention of our experiences for that audience.”
Cooper Hefner’s stepped into the chief creative officer role comes after his power was reduced at Playboy and he started up his own media company, Hop.media. (Hop is an acronym for Hefner Operations and Productions.)
After he departed Playboy, he ripped it for its decision to cut nudity in its U.S. magazine starting with its March 2016 issue. Nudity was later restored to the magazine when he came back to Playboy.
Cooper Hefner made the announcement today via Twitter, saying, “I am stepping in to the role of Chief, Global Partnerships at @Playboy Enterprises, focusing on revenue and business development over content and media management. Serving as CCO and seeing earnings increase year-over-year has been a pleasure. I look forward to the year ahead.”
