Image of Goldner taken from the Executive Management section of Hasbro's corporate website
Brian D. Goldner (born April 21st, 1963, died October 12th, 2021; age 58) was an American business executive and film executive producer who served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Bandai America from 1997 to 2000. Prior to his tenure at Bandai, Goldner was the worldwide director in charge of the Los Angeles office of J. Walter Thompson and vice president and account director of Leo Burnett Advertising, and was a graduate of Dartmouth College.
In 2000, Goldner left Bandai America for competitor Hasbro, who was suffering a net loss of $144 million and the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs. As a result of his contributions to Hasbro, Goldner was gradually promoted to the company's President of U.S. Toys Segment from 2003 to 2006, Chief Operating Officer from 2006 to 2008, company President from 2008 to 2016, and Chief Executive Officer and Chairman from 2008 and 2015 up until his passing, respectively. Goldner was also a member of the Paramount board of directors.
On October 12th, 2021, Hasbro announced that Goldner passed away from prostate cancer after taking a medical leave of absence two days prior. [2] His roles as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the company were respectively succeeded by Chris Cocks (formerly president of subsidiary Wizards of the Coast) and Richard Stoddart (who served as Interim Chief Executive Officer in the wake of Goldner's leave) as of February 25th, 2022.
Involvement with Tamagotchi[]
During his tenure at Bandai America, Goldner oversaw Tamagotchi's US distribution, and coordinated an advertising strategy that was largely responsible for its international success. Goldner said the following in response to Tamagotchi's initial success and demand:
"One of the things that worked to our benefit [in the US] was there was tremendous word-of-mouth coming out of Japan. The buzz for the product was already evident as early as the Toy Fair. Fundamentally, we were jumping into a market that had immediate competition from PlayMates' Nano Pets and Tiger's Giga Pets-in Japan it was the one and only. We used a different marketing approach to focus on the unique shape and characteristics-that the Tamagotchi was a virtual pet that came from outer space versus a dog or cat. We rearranged the whole world to satisfy the demand of this country. By the end of the year, we had sold around 10 million Tamagotchis in the US alone. You could never have predicted the kind of demand we had. For Tamagotchi to be a hit, we would imagine it to be in the neighborhood of 2 to 3 million pieces-which would have put it at almost a $50 million brand at retail." [1]