Rich Wuerthele named President & CEO of Crayola

 Rich Wuerthele, an executive with more than 30 years in the consumer goods industry, will join Crayola as the new CEO, effective January 16, 2020.

Rich, an accomplished executive who has successfully led a wide range of fully autonomous companies in a variety of business situations, was selected after following a search that considered a variety of candidates.  Rich will be joining Crayola from Newell Rubbermaid, where he has been the CEO of their Home Fragrance portfolio, including the notable Yankee Candle brand. Home Fragrance is a global consumer products business with end-to-end operating capabilities, as well as 450 company-owned retail stores.

“Throughout his career, Rich has been a strong builder of teams that develop high performance cultures. His experiences in product innovation, commercializing a wide range of products, and building brands runs deep,“ says Mike Perry, president & CEO – Hallmark. “He is an insightful and thoughtful leader with a thirst for creativity and innovation.”

“I am honored to join a company with such a rich history and look forward to advancing Crayola’s mission to bring color and creativity to children around the world,” said Rich Wuerthele.

Prior to Home Fragrance, Rich was the CEO of Newell’s Outdoor and Recreation business which includes the Coleman brand. Rich has led a variety of other brands and divisions throughout the company leveraging a unique blend of experience in marketing, manufacturing, consumer and commercial products across multiple product categories and formats.

“I look forward to working closely with Rich and I am confident that his commitment to nurturing a vibrant culture, commercializing new products and building the Crayola brand will be obvious to all of us,” says Mike.

About Crayola

Crayola LLC, based in Easton, Pa. and a business of Hallmark Cards, Inc., is the worldwide leader in children’s creative expression products. Known for the iconic Crayola Crayon first introduced in 1903, the Crayola brand has grown into a portfolio of art tools, crafting activities and creativity toys that offer children innovative ways to use color to create everything imaginable. Consumers can find the wide array of Crayola products in the “Crayola Aisle” at all major retailers. For more information, visit www.crayola.com

About Hallmark

For more than 100 years, family-owned Hallmark Cards, Inc. has been dedicated to creating a more emotionally connected world. Headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri and employing 30,000 worldwide, the approximately $4 billion company operates a diversified portfolio of businesses. Its global Hallmark Greetings business sells greeting cards, gift wrap and related products in more than 30 languages with distribution in more than 100 countries and 100,000 rooftops worldwide. Hallmark Retail operates about 2,000 Hallmark Gold Crown stores in five countries. Crayola® offers a wide range of art materials and creative play toys designed to spark children’s creativity around the globe. Crown Media Family Networks operates three cable channels – Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, and Hallmark Drama – in addition to Hallmark Publishing, the e-books division of the Hallmark channels, and Hallmark Movies Now, a subscription-based streaming service. Crown Center is a real estate development company that manages the 85-acre hotel, office, entertainment and residential campus surrounding Hallmark’s headquarters. For more information, visit Hallmark.com.