Lisa McKnight Biography

Lisa McKnight serves as Senior Vice President and Global General Manager for Mattel’s Barbie brand, a role she has held since 2016. In this role, McKnight leads a global team focused on brand strategy, product development and marketing execution for the iconic Barbie brand. McKnight has been instrumental in evolving the brand to make it more relevant and compelling to girls and parents around the world, leading to consistently improved retail sales and deeper consumer engagement. Prior to her current role, McKnight served as Senior Vice President and Global Brand GM for Mattel’s Monster High and Ever After High brands, where she developed and led highly successful marketing, advertising and brand promotional activities. Under her leadership, the Monster High brand forged a breakthrough partnership with Lady Gaga’s Born this Way foundation, paving the way for numerous cross-promotional opportunities while delivering a positive message to girls everywhere.

Previously, as Senior Vice President of Mattel’s North America Division, McKnight managed the business and marketing strategies for for the entire Mattel brand portfolio in the United States, including such brands as Barbie, Hot Wheels, Fisher-Price and Thomas & Friends. McKnight held responsibility for pricing and retail channel strategies, media planning and buying, public relations, promotions and advertising for the market.

Since joining Mattel in 1998, McKnight has held a number of senior leadership roles with the company, including Vice President, Global Marketing for Barbie. In this role, she lead a highly-successful brand re-launch, tied to Barbie’s 50th anniversary. As a result of her efforts to improve the brand’s global positioning and cultural relevance, Barbie enjoyed four consecutive years of sales growth.

Earlier in her career, McKnight gained significant marketing and brand management experience with a number of leading global consumer brands. She held numerous positions with award-winning agencies including Grey Worldwide, Foote, Cone & Belding, Gardner Geary Cole & Young, where she represented clients like Bank of America, Fairmont Hotels and Taco Bell. In addition, McKnight helped lead marketing strategy for Gap Inc., where she oversaw numerous campaigns including the Easy Fit Jeans campaign with the now-iconic LL Cool J spot, along with the highly-successful Khaki Swing and Easy Fit Jeans campaigns.

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