Mr. Stein recently transitioned over to join Peter Guber’s Mandalay Media, where he will serve on the board and as Chief Operating Officer. Remaining as an active board member, as well as a consultant to The Hatchery, Mr. Stein will have the opportunity to identify and help secure strategic and investment opportunities for the company.
Previously, Mr. Stein served as CEO/Chairman of Radical Communication, Inc., a company he successfully transformed from a production based communications company into an enterprise class, full service software provider with proprietary state of the art technologies. In September of 2001, he engineered the sale of the company to MindArrow Systems (ARRW), where he then served as a consultant and member of the Board of Directors.
From 1996 to 1998, Mr. Stein served as the Worldwide President, COO, and Board member to Mattel, Inc., a $5bn world leader in children’s toys and software where his responsibilities included marketing and development of all global toy and software product lines, financial management, market distribution and partnership alliances across the company’s global network. Under Mr. Stein’s watch Mattel enjoyed significant growth in revenues and profits through a greatly expanded product line, a tightened cost and financial reporting system, and gaining industry dominance in its partnership with entertainment companies.
Previously in 1995 and 1996, in roles as CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment and Chief Strategist of Sony Pictures Entertainment, Consultant to DreamWorks SKG and Mandalay Entertainment, and President of the Kenner Products Division of Hasbro, Mr. Stein established himself as a renowned authority in consumer and technology product development, marketing, and deal structure.
While at Sony, he established key marketing strategies to leverage intellectual property rights for the Sony PlayStation with the consumer and among other Sony merchandising and marketing divisions. By acquiring Crash Bandicoot, he successfully broadened the target age range of the PlayStation. The intellectual property strategies Mr. Stein initiated at Sony are still used today as the operating protocol for achieving property support across all Sony divisions.
As President of Kenner from 1987 to 1994, Mr. Stein successfully transformed the organization from a $150M company into an $800M success with 15% net profits. He first established the company as the premier intellectual property marketer and brand builder by turning several entertainment properties, e.g. Batman, Jurassic Park, Ghostbusters, Terminator, Starting Line-up (NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL, etc figures) into multi-million dollar, long term product lines. He lead the company through two acquisitions and following the Hasbro, Inc. acquisition he grew it to become their largest, most profitable company.
Mr. Stein, who holds an MBA in Marketing and Finance from the University of Chicago, began his career in brand marketing at Armour Dial and then at Ogilvy & Mather Advertising. He is a frequent speaker at industry and analyst events and conferences and currently serves on the Board of ViewSonic, Inc., on the Board of Trustees for the Toy Industry Foundation and on the Advisory Board for The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.
