Dive Brief:

• Mattel CFO Anthony DiSilvestro told the toy maker that he plans to retire on May 15, triggering the company to tap an executive search firm and begin a search for his successor, the company announced Thursday.
• DiSilvestro, an Ivy League-educated finance veteran, has been Mattel’s CFO since June of 2020, according to his LinkedIn profile. He joined Mattel from Camden, New Jersey-based Campbell’s Company, formerly known as The Campbell’s Soup Company, where he worked for over 23 years including serving as finance chief from 2014 to 2019.
• “Anthony has played a key role in steering Mattel to achieve its strongest financial position in many years,” Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz said in a statement included in the release. The company obtained an investment grade rating, strengthened its finance organization and increased efficiencies with more than $400 million in cost savings during DiSilvestro’s tenure, according to the release.

Dive Insight:

DiSilvestro’s departure comes as Mattel has undertaken an aggressive cost-cutting initiative in the wake of a slump in the toy industry. Mattel was also reportedly targeted last year by takeover bids, according to a report from CFO Dive sister publication Retail Dive.

While DiSilvestro has held the finance reins, Mattel has also taken fresh approaches to some of its iconic brands including Barbie, American Girl and Polly Pocket dolls as well Hot Wheels cars and Fisher-Price toys. Among its more high-profile recent moves, Mattel has backed movie-tie ins to its products, including with “Barbie,” the 2023 movie directed by Greta Gerwig, which in one scene wryly poked fun at the fictional Mattel’s all-male C-suite. Operationally last year the company also said it was considering using AI applications across its business as part of its cost-cutting initiative, CFO Dive sister publication CIO Dive reported.

In its latest earnings report for Q3 ended Sept. 30, the company reported net sales ticked down 4% to $1.8 billion from the year-earlier, while net income jumped to $372.4 million from $226 million. In an Oct. 23 earnings call DiSilvestro said the lower sales were primarily due to the comparison to the previous year period which benefited from a “Barbie” movie-related boost. Despite the sales decline, Morningstar Senior Equity Analyst Jaime Katz wrote in an Oct. 24 report that supply chain improvements and the company’s cost-saving plan have “generated benefits faster than expected.”  

Looking ahead, Katz wrote that the company has “crafted an improved profit profile…bolstered by focusing on key brands, pruning underperforming lines and extracting cost savings,” though benefits from some of the new opportunities the company has pursued won’t be immediate. For example, she wrote that the next big film, “Masters of the Universe,” is slated for a 2026 release. 

Separately, the company has struggled with some financial accounting woes, reaching a settlement in 2022 related to a matter that occurred prior to DiSilvestro’s arrival: the company agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle charges related to 2017 misstatements in two quarterly financial statements, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission release. Early last year, the company also reported that it would file its 10-K for the fiscal year ended Dec. 31, 2023 late after identifying “control deficiencies related to information technology general controls.”  

DiSilvestro, who holds a bachelor’s in economics from Dartmouth College and an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, received $5.3 million in total compensation last year, up from $3.5 million in 2022. As part of the transition plan, he will act as an advisor to the company for 90 days following his retirement in May, for which he will be paid a monthly fee of $50,000, according to a securities filing.