Catherine Balsam-Schwaber has left her role as chief content officer at Mattel to head up NBCUniversal-owned online crafts education platform Craftsy as GM, a Mattel spokesperson has confirmed.
Mattel’s president and chief operating officer Richard Dickson will assume Balsam-Schwaber’s responsibilities, as the US toymaker has no immediate plans to fill her position.
As Mattel’s chief content officer since September 2015, Balsam-Schwaber led global teams to develop, implement and maximize Mattel’s integrated strategy for content creation and distribution, digital development and media outreach. Last spring, Balsam-Schwaber was tasked with overseeing newly formed Mattel Creations, the company’s brand-based content arm that creates kid-friendly fare across all platforms. (Christopher Keenan continues to serves as SVP of content development and production for the division.)
Mattel Creations has helmed several projects including a crop of Thomas & Friends reboots and movies, animated series WellieWishers based on the American Girl doll franchise, and Dreamtopia, the latest CGI-animated movie in the Barbie franchise airing in Cartoon Network (LatAm), Super RTL (Germany), Pop TV (UK), MiniMini (Poland) and Karusel (Russia).
The move to NBCUniversal isn’t a foreign one for Balsam-Schwaber. Prior to joining Mattel, she was SVP at NBCUniversal Content Innovation Agency, where she directed the cross-company strategic marketing group as consumer connector, content creator and portfolio-wide revenue generator. She was also previously SVP of marketing for iVillage, where she led all marketing initiatives, brand strategy, cross-channel partnerships, and internal relationships across NBCU for the largest online content driven community for women.