The toy maker Matt the owner of the Barbie brand, announced today a change in leadership: according to Yahoo, veteran CEO Yanon Kreis will step down on October 2, after more than eight years in the position. He will be replaced by Roger Lynch, a Mattel board member, who will serve as chairman and CEO of the company.
Kreiz was appointed CEO of Mattel in 2018, at a time when the company faced significant challenges in the toy market and with a change in consumption habits. During his tenure, he led the company through a process that included focusing on its main brands, expanding activities in the entertainment field and turning Mattel’s characters and brands into assets that can be used beyond selling toys.
One of the most notable moves of his time was the movie “Barbie”, which became a global hit in 2023 and put the brand most associated with Mattel on center stage. The success of the film illustrated the company’s strategy to expand its activities beyond the shelves of toy stores, through collaborations, content and entertainment.
Lynch, who will now assume the role of CEO, comes with management experience in the media and technology industry. He joined Mattel’s board of directors in 2024, and previously served as CEO of the media and television company Sling TV as well as other senior management positions in the communications industry.
The announcement of the change of CEO was received negatively in the market. Mattel’s stock fell more than 3% in early trading after the announcement, as investors digest the change in the company’s leadership and the transition from Craze, who led Mattel for a long time.
The exchanges come as Mattel continues to deal with the changes in the toy market and with the need to generate growth around familiar brands such as Barbie, Hot Wheels and Fisher Price. Under the new CEO, the company will face the challenge of continuing to leverage these brands, while maintaining the core activity of manufacturing and marketing toys.
the brands it owns
Krayz participated in November 2025 at the Israel business conference of Globes and referred to his joining the company in 2018, after 3 CEOs changed in a row, he spoke about the strategic change he brought to the company and the success of the movie “Barbie”.
“What matters to the company is the brands it owns, when all the products it produces make it unique in relation to the world. The problem was at the time that Mattel saw itself as a factory and not as a brand manager, and this is the change I wanted to make – to manage it as a brand company, not a manufacturing company. And it proved itself. At the time, Mattel presented profits of about 100 million dollars, and in recent years, thanks to the strategy of turning the company into a brand management company, we have reached profitability
Kreis referred to the dizzying success of the movie “Barbie”, which was released under his management. “The goal wasn’t to make a movie to sell toys. The goal wasn’t even to make a movie, but to create a social phenomenon. We brought in a director who until then had only made small films but was very connected to the culture and understood how to create an emotional connection with an audience. We gave her the freedom to invent the story. She came back with a script in which Mattel is described as the worst company in corporate America, and my role as CEO of the company is portrayed as a chauvinist, and this script worked.”
“It was hard to live somewhere and not know the film was coming. And it was all thanks to the cultural connection we created, when the goal was to break conventions.”
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