MoviePass executive vice president Khalid Itum has resigned, several sources with knowledge of the decision told Business Insider.
Itum handed in his resignation last week after growing frustrated with the direction the company was going in, according to the sources. MoviePass confirmed to Business Insider that Itum will be leaving the company.
MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe handed over day-to-day operations to Itum late last year. Before that, Itum was the vice president of business development. MoviePass told Business Insider in a statement that Lowe would take over Itum's responsibilities starting March 15.
Itum is not the only management-level staffer to exit the company. In the past few weeks, Bernadette McCabe, senior vice president of exhibitor relations; Joey Adarkway, the chief technology officer; and Jake Petersen, a senior vice president who was heading the company's human-resources department, resigned, according to several sources. (Adarkway and Petersen will continue to consult for the company.)
Like Itum, some of the people who resigned were not happy with the recent developments at the company, according to the sources. After MoviePass' parent company, Helios and Matheson Analytics, was delisted from the Nasdaq, MoviePass laid off its three-person business-development team in Los Angeles and then closed its LA office.
Then last week, MoviePass announced it was revamping its business model to start working more closely with its film-production company, MoviePass Films.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, Helios and Matheson also said investors should not rely on some of its previously issued quarterly and year-to-date financial statements because they were not accurate. Helios and Matheson said it may have underestimated its third quarter net loss by $9.5 million.
MoviePass provided the following statement to Business Insider:
“As previously stated, MoviePass has moved in a new strategic direction, and will be refocusing our business model to create a more closely connected relationship between our subscription service and original content production unit, MoviePass Films. This strategic shift has been accompanied by changes within the company. Khalid Itum will be leaving MoviePass to pursue his entrepreneurial and travel pursuits. Mitch Lowe will assume all of Itum’s roles and responsibilities, effective March 15. Several roles and individuals within MoviePass, including Joey Adarkway and Jake Peterson, are transitioning from full time employees to contracted consulting roles based on this directional shift.”
