Mattel loses its Barbie-movie CEO to Paramount-Warner and hires Condé Nast’s chief

The executive who turned Barbie into a Hollywood blockbuster is leaving the company that owns her to run the studio that released her. Ynon Kreiz is stepping down as chairman and chief executive of Mattel to become co-CEO of the combined Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, and Mattel has handed his job to Roger Lynch, the chief executive of Condé Nast and a longtime member of its own board.

For anyone buying a Hot Wheels car or a Barbie this winter, the swap lands at the worst point of the toymaker’s calendar. The holiday quarter decides most of a toy company’s year, and Mattel now heads into it with a stand-in in the top office, a share price near its lowest level of the past year and a shareholder that has already asked the board to think about selling the whole company.

Kreiz leaves with a real record. Mattel says it now ranks first worldwide in dolls and toy vehicles, and Hot Wheels is on course for a ninth straight year of growth. Its first film, Barbie, grossed about $1.4 billion worldwide in 2023 and became the biggest movie Warner Bros. Pictures has ever released.

The market has never paid for that story. Mattel’s shares have lost roughly a third of their value this year, and they fell about 4% when the succession was announced. In May, Southeastern Asset Management, which manages more than 4% of the stock for clients, published an open letter urging the board to explore a sale, naming a private-equity buyout, a merger with Hasbro or a media company that would value the brands more than public investors do. A media company did come calling. It hired the chief executive instead.

The gaps are visible. A Barbie sequel has stalled over budget, according to Deadline, and the Hot Wheels film is still in development, so the movie pipeline that justified the strategy has slowed. In the second quarter, net sales rose about 10% to roughly $1.1 billion, yet Mattel swung to an $18 million loss from a $53 million profit a year earlier as import costs and pricier resin squeezed a business that makes most of its toys in Asia. Analysts at UBS wrote that the change adds uncertainty to already skittish sentiment, with rising rates and a year weighted toward the fourth quarter.

Lynch brings a media résumé, not a toy one. He was the founding chief executive of Sling TV, ran Pandora and has steered Condé Nast, the publisher of Vogue and The New Yorker, through falling print advertising and lost web traffic to AI chatbots. Condé Nast now has an interim boss, Mike Perlis, while it searches for a successor.

Mattel’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission spells out what it costs to hire him. Lynch gets a $2.3 million salary and a target bonus of twice that from 2027, plus a $10.6 million cash signing bonus, $6 million in restricted shares that vest immediately and a $10 million equity award, all to replace pay he forfeits at Condé Nast. A further $6 million in shares vests only if Mattel’s three-year shareholder return beats at least 55% of the S&P 500, and he receives $985,000 for relocation and temporary housing.

Kreiz steps down on October 2, when Lynch becomes chairman. Lynch takes over as chief executive on a date still to be agreed and no later than November 2; until then Jonathan Anschell, Mattel’s chief legal officer and a former ViacomCBS lawyer, serves as interim principal executive officer. Kreiz joins Paramount on October 5 and becomes co-CEO, with a board seat, when the Warner Bros. Discovery deal closes, which Paramount’s filings put on October 6. David Ellison keeps strategy, creative direction and capital allocation; Kreiz takes day-to-day operations and the integration.

By the time Lynch reaches the office in El Segundo, this year’s holiday toys will already be on the shelves, and the man who took Barbie to Warner Bros. will be running Warner Bros.

Tags: Warner Bros. Discovery, barbie, Paramount Skydance, Condé Nast, Mattel, Roger Lynch