Last year saw a big loss in the passing of long time Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner. His vision transitioned Hasbro from a toy company to the one we see today, focusing on brands and entertainment in addition to our plastic goodies. Today the company has named Chris Cocks the new CEO. He was previously President and CEO of Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming division, where he expanded properties like Magic the Gathering into even more successful parts of the company. Interim CEO Rich Stoddart will step down in February and become Chair of the Board. Hopefully the vision set out by Brian Goldner to transform the company continues and grows under Cocks.
Read on for the full press release from Hasbro.
Cocks to Succeed Interim CEO & Board Member, Rich Stoddart, and Join Board of Directors; Stoddart to Become Chair of the Board
Eric Nyman Appointed President & Chief Operating Officer of Hasbro
PAWTUCKET, R.I.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Jan. 5, 2022– Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS) today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Chris Cocks as Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors, effective February 25, 2022. Mr. Cocks currently serves as President and Chief Operating Officer of Hasbro’s Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming division, a global leader in tabletop and digital gaming. He will succeed Interim CEO, Rich Stoddart, who was appointed following the October passing of Hasbro’s longtime CEO Brian Goldner. Mr. Stoddart, who has served as a Hasbro independent director since 2014, will become Chair of the Board, effective February 25, 2022.
Tracy Leinbach, current Chair of the Board, said: “Chris’s appointment marks the culmination of an extensive and thoughtful candidate review and selection process led by the Board. In Chris, we have chosen a leader uniquely positioned to execute and evolve Hasbro’s Brand Blueprint strategy while continuing to generate growth and deliver strong shareholder returns. Chris’s extensive omni-channel experience and proven track record make him the ideal leader for Hasbro as it continues to become the world’s leading play and entertainment company. On behalf of the Board, we thank Rich for serving as Interim CEO during a difficult time for the Hasbro family and are delighted he will serve as Chair of our Board.”
Mr. Stoddart said: “Having known Chris for years and working more closely with him these last several months, I have no doubt that he will be an extraordinary leader for the next phase of Hasbro’s journey. A storyteller and gamer at heart, Chris innately understands how to create and nurture brands to drive fan and consumer connection across channels. He is a highly strategic leader, with the vision, skills and experience to unlock our Brand Blueprint for supercharged growth.”
Mr. Cocks said: “Hasbro has amazing brands, gifted storytellers and unique entertainment assets, and I am humbled to step into the position of CEO at this important time and to build on the strong foundation Brian created. Our consumer products, gaming and entertainment teams are the best and most creative in the business and have shown such incredible resilience. I look forward to working with our highly-experienced senior management team as we continue to reimagine play and entertainment and deliver experiences to families and fans, of all ages, around the world.”
Mr. Cocks has served as President and COO of Wizards of the Coast since 2016, when he joined Hasbro from Microsoft. Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro, offers games and entertainment under world-renowned brands such as MAGIC: THE GATHERING, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS and DUEL MASTERS. Under Mr. Cocks, Wizards of the Coast has focused on cooperative game play, expanding new digital initiatives and creating a robust workforce of back-end developers, digital designers, 3D artists and producers. Under Mr. Cocks’s leadership, revenue at Wizards of the Coast has more than doubled, surpassing $1 billion in 2021.
During his 14 years at Microsoft, Mr. Cocks led a global sales and technical engagement team as Vice President, OEM Technical Sales and served in product management and marketing leadership positions at MSN and Xbox Games, where he worked on hit franchises like HALO and FABLE.
The Company expects to name a new president for Wizards of the Coast in the coming weeks.
Eric Nyman to Become Hasbro’s President and Chief Operating Officer
Hasbro also announced the appointment of longtime leader Eric Nyman as President and Chief Operating Officer, effective February 25, 2022. In this new role, Mr. Nyman will oversee global business, operational and foundational platform investments; continue to lead Hasbro’s overall consumer licensing strategy and strategic partnerships; and oversee Hasbro’s global supply chain, directing the strategy for a next-generation consumer direct distribution platform.
Mr. Stoddart continued: “Eric has been a valued member of the Hasbro team for more than 18 years, inspiring our people, and driving consumer-focused innovation across our iconic brand portfolio. The Company will benefit from his vast knowledge, creativity and leadership as he takes on this new, expanded role on our senior management team.”
Mr. Nyman, who joined Hasbro in 2003, currently serves as Chief Consumer Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Hasbro Consumer Products. In this role, he leads the Hasbro Consumer Products business unit, including oversight for operations and partner relationships, Hasbro’s licensed consumer products business and Hasbro Pulse, the Company’s direct-to-consumer platform. He previously served in a number of senior roles, including President of Hasbro North America and General Manager and Senior Vice President of Marketing.
About Hasbro
Hasbro (NASDAQ: HAS) is a global play and entertainment company committed to making the world a better place for all children, fans and families. Hasbro delivers immersive brand experiences for global audiences through consumer products, including toys and games; entertainment through eOne, its independent studio; and gaming, led by the team at Wizards of the Coast, an award-winning developer of tabletop and digital games best known for fantasy franchises MAGIC: THE GATHERING and DUNGEONS & DRAGONS.
The Company’s unparalleled portfolio of approximately 1,500 brands includes MAGIC: THE GATHERING, NERF, MY LITTLE PONY, TRANSFORMERS, PLAY-DOH, MONOPOLY, BABY ALIVE, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, POWER RANGERS, PEPPA PIG and PJ MASKS, as well as premier partner brands. For the past decade, Hasbro has been consistently recognized for its corporate citizenship, including being named one of the 100 Best Corporate Citizens by 3BL Media and one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies by Ethisphere Institute. Important business and brand updates are routinely shared on our Investor Relations website, Newsroom and social channels (@Hasbro on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.)
Hasbro Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements may be accompanied by such words as “anticipate,” “believe,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “project,” “target,” “will” and other words and terms of similar meaning. Among other things, these forward-looking statements include statements related to expected leadership changes, the structure of Hasbro’s management operations and similar statements concerning anticipated future events and expectations that are not historical facts. Hasbro’s actual actions or results may differ materially from those expected or anticipated in the forward-looking statements due to both known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Specific factors that might cause such a difference include those risks detailed from time to time in Hasbro’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The statements contained herein are based on Hasbro’s current beliefs and expectations and speak only as of the date of this press release. Except as may be required by law, Hasbro does not undertake any obligation to make any revisions to the forward-looking statements contained in this press release or to update them to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this press release. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.
HAS-IR
HAS-C
Shin Densetsu
Anything IDW has done with their Transformers comics has nothing to do with the new CEO. Since that ended up overtaking the topic at hand, this thread is closed.
Bass X0
Actually I’ve always maintained that Chromedome / Rewind and Cyclonus / Tailgate in MTMTE are two of the best relationships in the whole of Transformers, and the four are labelled with masculine pronouns. Roberts worked hard to make those two relationships endearing.
It’s those stories that have a relationship just for the sake of having a relationship without bothering to put any effort into developing the relationship. Those are make for terrible stories. And yet some people think just seeing two characters kiss without any development or emotion involved makes for an endearing relationship. That’s a shallow way of thinking to me.
I like well written relationships full of development and emotion. I don’t like shallow poorly written relationships.
I also don’t think Transformers is a franchise where sexuality should be a thing. It’s one thing for two Transformers to be in a relationship. It’s something else entirely for them to have sexual intercourse as if they were humans. That’s something we should stay away from. And yet some people want to children’s characters to be shown to have sex. That’s the problematic nature of some fandoms.
fallenspartan
Hard knocks
T-Hybrid
franpincho
Coffee spilled.
T-Hybrid
If we've learned anything in the past few years it's that there's a lot of regular people who don't give two shits about the average worker. Just look at what airline staff is currently going through.
Bass X0
The era of Gold has concluded.
Now begins the era of… well…
fallenspartan
Here is my layman’s take on this whole debate. I personally have nothing against inclusion for a person of any creed, race, gender, religion, in any kind of media. If a creator wants to diversify and include other different type of characters, more power to them. So long as the product is in good quality, it doesn’t matter to me what sort of “woke agenda” they have. There is nothing wrong with having diversity and inclusion. I don’t see anything divise about it. Life is too short to get angry about such things.
TFXProtector
IDW tried, to some success. Met with a lot of pushback. Not so much here because the rules are in place and the staff are really quite good about stepping in on this particular issue, but check out Reddit and Facebook group posts and you'll see that there are a lot of people in our fandom who aren't into the mindset of diversity, inclusion, or anything pertaining to what isn't in their worldview. That doesn't mean all of them are evil or bigoted, some of them absolutely are, but there are some who are just simply misinformed or out of the loop. (But man, you want to see the nasty side of the fandom? Check out both places. Ugh.)
Eh, yes and no. I get the point you're making though. Me, personally, I find no problem with them being male and female and having stories go from there. Whether straight or LGBTQ+, as long as it's written well and not just pandering or outright offensive, I welcome it. That said, the original cartoon clearly had them defined as male and female and you didn't have to guess.
I can't speak for someone else, but as I said in my previous response above, there is a lot of that in the fandom. Some people just aren't able to process it properly. Whether indoctrination or upbringing or they simply just don't like it (please note I didn't say they were phobic or afraid, people can simply just not like something without being afraid of it) some of the people will just not accept it. While it's somewhat fair to assume "please don't put gay robots in my cartoon" it's not always that. You ever meet someone that you just didn't like? You couldn't put your finger on it, they weren't horrible and they didn't offend you but you just didn't click? That mentality for a person can also be applied to things/situations as well. For some, it's just that. It just doesn't click for them. As long as they're not so anti-whatever that they'd want to deny rights and privileges. Once that line is crossed, then they're completely wrong.
But, to be fair, yeah… Some of it's exactly the "gay thing". Sadly.
At first, I was going to take your comment at face value but then you said it makes them look like a dick and completely undermined your position. If you come at someone with respect and grace, you'll be more likely to be heard rather than encounter negativity on all sides. Since you've not done that, you'll get what you give and rightfully so.
Just because Budiansky had a particular view doesn't mean Hasbro did. Marvel helped them create the characters and the names but in the end it was still Hasbro's property and so was the cartoon, ultimately, and if they want the characters to be a specific thing, even if we agree or don't agree with it, it's their right. If they want them to be binary and gendered, that's their right. If IDW changed the narrative and Hasbro was clearly okay with it, that's their right. Just because you don't like it, or Budiansky doesn't like it, well… *shrugs* Not your property.
They're living beings with feelings. Part of growth as beings are emotional (and therefore romantic) attachments and connections. Whether it's platonic or romantic or whatever is up to the individual character. Sure, it's written by someone else, but as long as it's organic and realistic and not heavy-handed or preachy, what's the big deal? Data tried for years to be human, craved it, and didn't realize he did because he lacked the emotions. He slept with Tasha Yar, he tried to date one of his shipmates in a later season episode, he raised a cat and took care of it. He couldn't verbalize it, he couldn't show it, but there was love behind all of it and when the emotion chip was installed, he finally understood it. He felt it and realized he had been more human than a lot of us. I didn't really see anyone complaining about that. (I'm sure there were a vocal few. Because, why not? *sigh*)
Why can't the Transformers do the same thing? They have actual emotions, they're ahead of the game when compared to Data.
What bothers me is people take umbrage with the existence of these relationships in children's entertainment but some don't even balk at the inclusion of the incredibly inappropriate content of the Bayverse films. (we won't even go near AOE with a 10-foot pole for this one, ugh) Wheelie humping legs? Sam's Happy Time? Just to name two incredibly inappropriate things unnecessary to the film/story content. Those movies were supposedly based on children's entertainment. And there were moments in the films where kids could watch safely, such as Optimus and the humans interacting and Bumblebee's oafish sweetness but the rest of it was violent, relentless, and sexified, and no one bats an eye at that. Yet, we make the Transformers more human in a lot of ways and that's a no-go because they might love one another.
That's an f'd up argument, man.
Love for their fellow being? People go to war to protect those they love. Not just platonically, but romantically as well. Whether on the front lines of a battlefield or the front lines of the pandemic, it's not just the money, it's not just a job, they do it to save the lives of those around them and those back at home. "All's fair in love and war". I mean, why do they have to be robotic warriors without the capability to love? If they can't love, they also cannot hate, therefore they wouldn't be going to war. It would be two factions of robots fighting "just because" and I don't know about you but that would be boring AF. That makes no sense and makes for a boring storyline, and here? A pointless debate.
*HISS* BOO! Stop droppin' those facts, you know our fandom doesn't like them!
The not "normal" is a big part of it, based on what I've seen elsewhere. I'm sure we'd see more of it here if the admins/mods didn't step in like they do when this discussion boils over in prior cases. A lot of people are just keeping their mouths shut so they don't get in trouble/banned, but if you ripped that rule out you'd see a side to this fandom that would make you feel very different about it. *shudders*
I'm not sure why science-fiction fandom has such a… "one-way" lean to it but my gosh, for all of the advancements and openness in other ways, it's so closed off and closeminded in this way. People you'd never expect to see it from (and some you do lol) just coming out of the woodwork all of a sudden with "EWW! NO!" it's disheartening. "Well, I don't want that in there, so if you can't do it my way then I don't want you doing it at all."
Do I think some arguments (in either direction) could influence children and indoctrinate them in some way or another? Absolutely. Do I think they should automatically be included? No. I think a deft hand needs to write it in if it must be included and that it should be relevant to the story at hand and make sense, not just forced in because it can be. That said, that only works for an episode or two and becomes really boring if you don't flesh out the characters and give them more to their being. That includes relationships of all kinds. Don't force agendas, just tell kids that people have friends, people have significant others, and sometimes they love like we do and sometimes they love in different ways. Kids are smarter than we give them credit for and they have much bigger hearts than we do.
The Roman Empire1977
To those who say romance shouldn't be involved in media; since when did you truly believe that? Do you seethe watching the majority of films and cartoons? Or is it only when it is towards relationships that are not "normal" in your eyes?
MagnusPrimal
Or really any company.
Venixion
Giggles immaturely at the last name.
Never heard of this guy, hopefully he does a decent job.
Hoffman
How dare we teach children about loving relationships.
Robomaster726
It's not so much that it shouldn't be in there, so much as it is that unless it's critical and enhances the story, what use is it to the overall plot. In this case, we're talking giant robots who are at war. Not sure what "love" has anything to do with it. Plus, well… robots that don't identify along gender norms in universe, but translated into our language utilize our pronouns that ARE based on gender for a reference point we can understand as the people watching/reading the story being told.
Plus, characters who are organic, biological beings, regardless of planet of origin, are going to be more likely to express feelings in stories involving relationship angles, whether they're romantic or otherwise. Hell, even Vulcans admit they have feelings. They just suppress them. Again, it's the robot angle where I think it's unnecessary.
Been a long time since I've seen any of them, but wasn't that part of the driving force of the story it was featured in? I mean, reflecting on a character's origin or backstory, however brief or short, if it's crucial to the story, it's crucial to the story. I just don't feel the need to shoehorn this stuff in when the overall story doesn't require it
And with that I'm done.
T-Hybrid
I'm not "the current generation."
The issue is people across generations confusing love with romance and attraction.
And yeah, that's my last word on the matter since the mods have weighed in.
WishfulThinking
I tend to feel that the current generation out there sometimes confuses close friendship with romantic love. Not always but enough – and media and other institutions aren't helping much to delineate the difference to the point that our kids don't understand the difference. My fear is that Chris C will place an emphasis on adding to that confusion.
That's not to say homosexual relationships shouldn't be represented. They absolutely should where it makes sense and feels natural. But rather, they shouldn't be represented in place of normal heterosexual friendships that are more akin to brotherly and sisterly love. And there shouldn't be the pressure on media these days to convert those friendships to "sexual", just because the two people have chemistry and operate well together.
And that's my lone statement on this topic, seeing now the moderator's stance.
T-Hybrid
I wonder what this thread would have looked like had his name been Jim Smith or Steven Erickson.
(I just pulled some names out of my ass and have no idea if they are real people)
trokanmariel33
I don't know about Chris Cocks, but, I appreciate the red happiness that the thread has given me
Gamerlingual
Romance isn’t the topic. Swap it back to the CEO minus the jokes. Thanks in advance
Robomaster726
Agreed. It is too bad.