Summit Home Entertainment Drops Another Executive (Exclusive)

Sandy Friedman is the third high-profile Summit Home Entertainment executive to lose his job in the wake of the independent studio’s sale to Lionsgate.

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The Hollywood Reporter has learned Friedman, EVP of operations, exits Summit Entertainment's home entertainment division along with president Steve Nickerson and EVP of sales Bobby Gerber. All three have years of major-studio experience, Nickerson and Gerber at Warner Home Video and Friedman at DreamWorks SKG. (Summit has also let go of domestic TV distribution president Alex Fragen.)

Friedman was brought on in December 2007, shortly after Nickerson and Gerber established Summit Entertainment’s home entertainment division. He was charged with overseeing Summit’s day-to-day operations along with retail distribution. Friedman joined Summit after two years at Netflix, where as VP of content operations he worked on the subscription rental service’s supply chain and movie-streaming endeavors.

He previously had spent eight years at DreamWorks, where he was head of Worldwide Operations.

Friedman began his home entertainment career as director of credit at Paramount Home Video from 1985 to 1986. From 1990 to 1994, he was director of operations at Warner Home Video, and in 1994 moved over to Turner Home Entertainment as SVP of business operations. He joined DreamWorks in 1998.

Friedman is one of the only high-profile home entertainment executives with a law degree. Ben Feingold, former president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, is another.