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By Paul Ziobro and Joann S. Lublin 

Mattel Inc. on Tuesday said it named Google executive Margaret Georgiadis as its next chief executive, bringing in an outsider to replace Christopher Sinclair atop the biggest U.S. toy company.

Ms. Georgiadis, who has been president, Americas, at Alphabet Inc.'s Google unit since 2011, has led the internet company's commercial operations and advertising sales in the region. She is expected to join Mattel starting Feb. 8.

Mr. Sinclair will serve as executive chairman.

Mattel's board hired executive-search firm Spencer Stuart last summer to identify candidates to succeed Mr. Sinclair, The Wall Street Journal reported in November. Mr. Sinclair, who took over the top job two years ago, has been commuting to Mattel's offices in Southern California from his primary residence in Florida.

Mr. Sinclair rose to the CEO spot abruptly in January 2015. A longtime Mattel board member, he stepped in on an interim basis when Mattel fired his predecessor amid slumping sales of Barbie dolls and other big brands. Mattel named him permanent CEO three months later, passing over internal candidates.

Mr. Sinclair and his top lieutenant, Richard Dickson, have led a turnaround at the toy maker, which has annual sales of roughly $6 billion. Mattel has reversed sales declines at top brands such as Barbie and Fisher-Price, patched rocky relationships with retailers and deepened a management bench with new hires to oversee branding strategies and development of movies and shows to help sell toys.

The company has also overhauled its corporate culture, which now allows designers and marketers to take more risks with a new division called Toy Box, created as an entrepreneurial arm. "Very little of this organization looks and acts the way it did just two years ago," Mr. Sinclair said at analyst meeting in November.

Mattel, however, is passing over Mr. Dickson for the top job. Since returning to Mattel in May 2014, Mr. Dickson has been promoted to president and chief operating officer, overseeing all marketing and sales operations. He was seen by analysts as having an inside track to the corner office.

While some brands, like Monster High, continue to struggle, Mattel has largely met carefully laid out investor expectations. Its sales have exceeded expectations in each of the past four quarters, and it has been able to plug the hole from losing a coveted license to make dolls based on Walt Disney Co.'s classic princesses and characters from the movie "Frozen."

Mattel's rebound has corresponded with two of the strongest years for the toy industry in decades.

Before joining Google, Ms. Georgiadis served as chief operating officer at Groupon Inc. and chief marketing officer at Discover Financial Services. She was a partner at McKinsey & Co. for 15 years in London and Chicago. She received an economics degree from Harvard and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Write to Paul Ziobro at Paul.Ziobro@wsj.com and Joann S. Lublin at joann.lublin@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 17, 2017 09:12 ET (14:12 GMT)

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