Jill Barad (née Elikann; born May 23, 1951) is an American businesswoman from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, who was CEO of

Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company founded in January 1945 and headquartered in El Segundo, California. The company has presence in 35 countries and territories and sells products in more ...

from 1997 to 2000.

Career

Jill Barad graduated with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree in English Literature and Psychology from Queens College in New York. In college, she worked in cosmetics sales and then became brand manager for the full line of Coty products. After moving to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, she was an account executive for the Max Factor brand at Wells, Rich, Greene/West advertising agency. She started working at Mattel as a product manager in 1981 and was named CEO and Charmain of the Board in 1997. Barad was one of four women to lead a Fortune 500 company at the time. She helped transformed Mattel from a toy company into a premier global family products company. Under her leadership annual sales rose from $200 million to $2 billion. In 1998, Mattel acquired Pleasant Company, the maker of the American Girl line of dolls, for $700 million. On behalf of Mattel, Barad donated $25 million to

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

to rebuild its Children's Hospital in 1998. The facility is now named the Mattel Children's Hospital. She resigned from the company in February 2000 under pressure from investors following disappointing earnings, largely a result of the acquisition of

The Learning Company The Learning Company (TLC) was an educational software company founded in 1980 in Palo Alto, California and headquartered in Fremont, California. The company produced a grade-based line of learning software, edutainment games, and productivity ...

. She received almost $50 million in severance pay. Barad has served on several corporate boards, including

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...

Bank of America The Bank of America Corporation (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The bank ...

and

Pixar Animation Studios Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californ ...

. She was a member of the UCLA Executive Board for the Medical Sciences and the UC Health Services Advisory Committee. She was the Vice Chairman of Town Hall Los Angeles, on the board of fellows of

Claremont University The Claremont Graduate University (CGU) is a private, all-graduate research university in Claremont, California. Founded in 1925, CGU is a member of the Claremont Colleges which includes five undergraduate (Pomona College, Claremont McKenna Col ...

Center and Graduate School, trustee emeritus of the Queens College Foundation, and a board member of Girls, Inc. She was also chairman of the executive advisory board of the Children Affected by AIDS Foundation, which she co-founded.

Personal life

Barad is the daughter of Hollywood director,

Larry Elikann Larry is a masculine given name in English, derived from Lawrence or Laurence. It can be a shortened form of those names. Larry may refer to the following: People Arts and entertainment * Larry D. Alexander, American artist/writer *Larry Boone ...

(1923-2004). Jill and her husband Tom continued their philanthropic efforts at UCLA and The Barad Family Children's Bone Marrow Transplant Unit is named after them in the Mattel Children's Hospital.

References

1951 births American chief executives of manufacturing companies American women chief executives Businesspeople from New York City Living people People from New York City Queens College, City University of New York alumni 21st-century American women {{US-CEO-stub