It can’t be easy running an international company as complex as Hasbro. There’s the shipping drama logistics to deal with, the purchase of movie-making eOne just as the movie business slammed into lockdown and the tightrope of Magic and D&D.
Brian Goldner, the company’s CEO, was treated for prostate cancer in 2014, and last August, Hasbro told investors that the ongoing treatment of this might cause hair loss.
Hasbro hasn’t said why Goldner is taking a leave of absence but have said it is effective immediately.
Goldner has been CEO since 2008, which is a really long tenure for such a powerful position. Previously the company’s lead independent director at the board level, Richard Stoddart, will take over as interim CEO.
What’s Stoddart like? He has a marketing background and worked at the famous agency Leo Burnett Worldwide and at InnerWorkings as CEO. InnerWorkings is also a marketing agency that helps companies actually put plans into motion over the supply chain.
Edward M. Philip has been re-appointed to the board to take the lead independent director position. It was Philip who told the press;
Brian has been an inspiring and visionary leader who has set Hasbro on an incredible path towards the future. All of us at Hasbro are thinking of him while he focuses on his health”
It’s an interesting time for Hasbro, to say the least. On top of the shipping crisis, some investors are worried that mainstay brands like My Little Pony, Transformers and G.I. Joe are plateauing – although tabletop gamers have projects from Renegade to look forward to.
Wizards are approaching the 50th birthday of D&D, which new books promised for 2024, but uncertainty whether they’re just new covers, D&D 5.5 or even D&D 6. That’ll be a challenging marketing and communications decision for WotC, Hasbro’s cash cow in recent years, to make. Maybe even one that a marketing guru like Stoddart might want to get his teeth into.
I wish Brian Goldner a speedy recovery.
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