Jill E. Barad

Jill E. Barad is an American business executive who served as chief executive officer (CEO) of the toy manufacturer Mattel, Inc. from 1997 to 2000. At the time, she was one of a very small number of female CEOs.

Barad received a B.A. (1973) from Queens College in New York City. Following graduation, she worked as an assistant to the Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis and landed a nonspeaking role in his 1974 film Crazy Joe. Deciding to follow a path other than acting, she worked for Coty Cosmetics as a cosmetician-trainer. Even at this early job, her innovative nature shone through—when she realized that Coty’s products were not being placed well in the stores she visited, she designed a wall display that the company would use for the next two decades. She married Thomas Barad in 1979 and left the workforce shortly thereafter when she became pregnant with their first child.

By 1981 she was ready to return to work, and she began her career with Mattel as a product manager. Her first assignment was an ill-fated rubbery product called A Bad Case of Worms, but she gained recognition for her initiative in promoting the product. In the mid-1980s she was put in charge of girls’ toys, and her successes—including the She-Ra: Princess of Power line, the first action-figure series ever to be targeted specifically to girls—earned her a series of promotions.

In 1982 Barad was put in charge of the Barbie line. Launched in 1959, by the early 1980s Barbie was experiencing unremarkable sales. Barad brought new life to the line, expanding the Barbie collection by packaging different versions of the doll, each with its own accessories, so that children would want to own more than one. The results of this development were astounding: annual sales of the Barbie brand grew from $200 million in 1982 to $1.9 billion in 1997. Barad, who had been named president and chief operating officer of Mattel in 1992, was subsequently primed to take over as CEO and in 1997—after 16 years with the company—joined the small number of female executives heading major U.S. businesses.

As the CEO of Mattel, Barad’s success continued. By 1998 the average girl in the United States owned nine Barbies, and the brand amounted to some 40 percent of Mattel’s sales. Barad announced plans to aggressively pursue the international market, intending to put Barbie, as well as other Mattel toys, in the hands of even more children around the world. However, amid reports of disappointing overall earnings, she announced that Mattel would acquire the troubled educational-software maker the Learning Company, a decision that ultimately cost Mattel millions in a single year. Barad subsequently resigned in 2000 under pressure from investors and shareholders.