Alan G. Hassenfeld

Alan Geoffrey Hassenfeld was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on 16 November 1948 to Merrill Hassenfeld and Sylvia Grace Kay Hassenfeld, and died on 8 July 2025. His grandfather Henry Hassenfeld was a Jewish immigrant from Poland and a founder of the company; his mother Sylvia was the first woman to serve as president of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, he became chief executive of Hasbro in 1989 on the death of his brother Stephen and held the post until 2003, remaining chairman emeritus through 2024. He diversified the company, expanded it internationally and turned it towards a kind of corporate activism aimed at children's lives. He was a founding benefactor of Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence, established the Hassenfeld Family Initiative in 2008 for the rights and safety of women and children, and endowed the Hassenfeld Family Innovation Center at Brandeis University in 2014; Bryant University named its public leadership institute after him in 2012.