Ellen L. Brothers is president of the American Girl Brands business unit and responsible for the strategic vision and day-to-day operations of the organization, which includes direct marketing, experiential retail, and publishing channels. She serves as a member of Mattel’s management committee.

Brothers joined American Girl, which is headquartered in Madison, WI, in 1995 as vice president of Catalogue Marketing and was promoted to vice president of the Catalogue Division two years later. In 1998, she was named senior vice president of operations and senior vice president of Mattel.

A 1978 graduate of the University of Illinois, Brothers has spent her entire career in the direct-marketing industry, most notably with Pepperidge Farm Mail Order Company in Connecticut, where she served as president and general manager for the last three of her ten years with the organization.

From 1988 to 1990, Brothers served as president of the New England Mail Order Association, the largest association of cataloguers in the country. Brothers was selected as one of Target Marketing magazine’s “200 Most Influential Direct Marketers” from 1990 through 1992. For the past 16 years, she has been a member of the Direct Marketing Association’s Catalogue and Marketing Councils, and served on the DMA’s board of directors from 1997 through 2000. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Children Affected by AIDS Foundation (CAAF) and oversees American Girl’s Fund for Children, the company’s grant program that has awarded more than $6 million to local children’s charities since its inception in 1992. In 2005, Brothers received the “Donor Award of Distinction” from Kids In Distressed Situations (K.I.D.S.) for American Girl’s extensive contributions to the organization over the past 15 years.

Mattel, Inc. is the worldwide leader in the design, manufacture and marketing of toys with approximately $5 billion in annual sales. The company’s rich portfolio of brands are known to generations of children around the world, and include Barbie®, Fisher-Price®, Hot Wheels® and American Girl®. With headquarters in El Segundo, California, Mattel has offices and facilities in 42 countries and sells its products in more than 150 nations throughout the world.