Toy Association’s Marian Bossard Wins WIT Wonder Women Award

Marian BossardFebruary 17, 2019 | The Toy Association is proud to announce that Marian Bossard, executive vice president of global market events, won the Women in Toys, Licensing, and Entertainment (WIT) Wonder Women Award for sales.

“It is not surprising that our beloved Marian – a longtime Toy Association staff member – was the big winner of the sales category. Marian is the embodiment of dedication, passion, and relentless commitment through her awesome leadership of all our market events and the meetings and events team,” said Steve Pasierb, president and CEO of The Toy Association. “Marian is emblematic of our fantastic Toy Association team and it was so great to hear her name announced and have the room erupt in thunderous applause. We are so very proud of her!”

The annual Wonder Women Awards celebrates industry leaders for their outstanding contributions in toys, licensing, and entertainment in eight categories. Award winners in other categories included:

  • Creator / Inventor – Amy Pruzansky, Spin Master
  • Licensing – Gabriela Arenas, Sesame Workshop
  • Manufacturing – Nancy Sanchez, LEGO Systems, Inc.
  • Marketing – Juli Lennett, The NPD Group
  • Rising Star / Corporate – Chrissy Helmich, Wicked Cool Toys, and Kate Nichols, Spin Master
  • Rising Star / Independent – Marissa Louie, Animoodles, and Natalie Rebot, Moonlite World
  • Sales – Marian Bossard, The Toy Association
  • Social Responsibility – Amy Knight, Hasbro

WIT presented the “Mentor of the Year” award to Pam Kaufman of Viacom Nickelodeon and the “Retailer of the Year” to Gaye Dean of Target. Additionally, four-year old YouTube Influencers, Mila and Emma, were presented with the 2019 Wonder Girls Award. WIT also awarded scholarships to nine students from universities around the country. More than 800 toy industry professionals attended the gala, held at Chelsea Piers on Sunday night.

“At The Toy Association, I have one job – to help our members sell more products more often, in more places around the world,” Bossard said. “To win this award is a great honor and I am beyond proud to represent The Toy Association. Thank you to WIT for deeming me worthy of this award.”

The Toy Association’s Adrienne Appell, senior director of strategic communications, was nominated for the award in the Marketing/PR category. Bossard and Appell were among 60 nominees for this year’s Wonder Women Awards.

The Toy Association is a proud sponsor of Women in Toys.