Christie Hefner

Christie has always carried the legacy of her father and his enterprise, the Playboy. She married William A Marovitz, former Illinois state senator in 1995. Her husband was also an attorney and a real estate developer. He was sued by the Securities Exchange Commission for allegedly using inside information for trading shares of Playboy illegally in 2012 that had to be settled out of court by paying $ 168,352.

Christie had told her husband not to trade in Playboy shares, since she was the CEO, which could lead to legal complications. However, her husband did not pay heed to her advice, and that lead to their divorce in 2013.

Christie Ann Hefner was born on November 8, 1952 in Chicago Illinois, USA to Mildred and Hugh Hefner. Her father is the founder of the Playboy Enterprises. She was barely five years old when her parents divorced and her mother remarried. She has a brother and two half siblings from his father’s previous marriage.

After her parents separated, she and her brother David moved to Wilmette, Illinois. They were brought up in the suburbs of the city where she graduated from the New Trier High School. She was good at maths and interested in music from an early age. As extracurricular activity, she attended the National Music Camp at Interlochen during the summers from 1964 to 1969.

Later, she graduated with summa cum laude from Brandeis University with a bachelor’s degree in American Literature and English in 1974. During her first year at the university, she was elected to the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa honour society and in 1978 she became a President’s Councillor of her alma mater.

Christie at one stage contemplated doing law after her degree, but later decided to start her career as a freelance journalist. She began by writing movie reviews for the ‘Boston Phoenix’ for a year.

After gaining experience in journalism, she moved to Chicago and entered her father’s empire to work for Playboy. Within four years, she was promoted to be the vice president of the company and rose to the position of its president in 1982. By 1988, Christie Hefner was the chairperson and CEO of Playboy Enterprises.

When Christie joined Playboy, she considered it an interim measure and thought she would not stay on for a long time. However, after the first five years, she started liking the business world and realised her potential as a leader and businesswoman.

Under her leadership, Playboy Enterprise acquired other leading adult oriented businesses such as ‘Spice Network’ and ‘ClubJenna’. She streamlined the company’s operations by eliminating the DVD division and laying off superfluous staff in 2008. She is also responsible for closing down the Playboy Clubs, where female waitresses served dressed in Playboy bunny costumes. On the other hand, she started Playboy TV and Playboy.com to remain in tune with the changing times.

In December 2008, she announced her plans to step down from the post of CEO of Playboy within a year, and decided to divert her attention to charity work. As per her statement, she was influenced by President Barrack Obama to embrace the change in her life.

As a journalist. she wrote movie reviews for the ‘Boston Phoenix’ in her early career.

Her major contribution is to steer Playboy Enterprises as its CEO and to keep it abreast with the changing times by gradually shifting its focus from print media to online ventures.