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Dive Brief:
Mattel is bringing on Peter Griffith as its chief financial officer, effective Tuesday, according to a Monday press release. Griffith will join the company’s board of directors and report to CEO Roger Lynch.
Griffith succeeds Paul Ruh, who will serve as an adviser through the end of the year to support the transition. Ruh has been the CFO since May 2025.
Griffith comes to Mattel from biotech company Amgen, where he served as executive vice president and CFO.
Dive Insight:
Mattel has changed out another member of its executive team.
The toy company’s appointment of a chief financial officer comes weeks after the company named a new CEO. At the end of September, Lynch was named chief executive. He was previously the CEO of Condé Nast and served on Mattel’s board since 2018.
Then-CEO Ynon Kreiz stepped down from the top Mattel spot and was shortly thereafter named co-CEO of the Paramount and Warner Bros. combined company.
Peter Griffith
Image courtesy of Mattel
Griffith brings to Mattel expertise in strategic transactions, capital allocation, technology investments, cybersecurity and business transformation. Prior to his time at Amgen, Griffith worked with private equity and advisory firm Sherwood Canyon Group. He also spent over two decades as a partner at accounting and professional services firm EY, formerly Ernst & Young.
“Peter is a highly accomplished and respected financial leader with a proven track record of enabling growth, driving financial discipline, and allocating capital strategically,” Lynch said in a statement regarding Griffith’s appointment. “His deep experience spanning global financial management, private equity, and investment banking will be invaluable as we look to sharpen our execution and improve our performance.”
Griffith will receive an annual base salary of $1.3 million and will have a bonus opportunity of up to 200% of his base salary, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He will gain a new-hire, performance-based restricted stock unit award of $3.3 million, which will vest at the end of a three-year period. Griffith will also collect a cash signing bonus of $1.4 million.
The executive changes are happening amid outside pressure for Mattel to consider a sale. At the start of October, Ariel Investments pushed for the toy company to explore strategic alternatives, including a potential divestiture of assets, a merger or a sale.
Investment management firm Southeastern Asset Management wrote an open letter to Mattel this spring with a similar ask for the company to sell itself to private equity, another toy company or a media business.
In its latest earnings, Mattel reported net sales were up 10% year over year to $1.1 billion. The company reported a net loss of $18 million in Q2, compared to a net income of $53 million in the year-ago period.