Gerrick Johnson - I used to work for Sean McGowan

(photo from Forbes article about Gerrick, The Biggest Kid on Wall Street)

What is your claim to fame in the industry?

I used to work for Sean McGowan.

Why and how did you get into the Toy and Game industry?

I was in investment banking at Gerard Klauer Mattison right after business school. I hated it. So I looked to transfer into equity research. The education and employment services analyst rejected me, but then a spot opened up on the toy team. So it was sort of happenstance. I knew nothing about toys before.

What trends do you see in toys or games that excite or worry you?

Blind bags. Why take great innovation and hide it?

Where were you born?

Bay Shore, Long Island.

What are your favorite childhood memories?

Boating across Great South Bay to Fire Island. Explore the shore, and eat cold fried chicken for lunch on the bay side, and then we’d walk over to the ocean side to spend the rest of the day before heading back home. My parents were teachers, so we did it all summer long. Their other teacher friends had kids and boats, too. Sometimes we would all caravan across the bay.

What was your favorite toy or game as a child?

Hot Wheels, Star Wars figures, army men, dinosaurs, erector set, building blocks cut from 2x4s.

What’s in your fridge?

Beer, cheese, and beer-cheese.

What’s your favorite TV show?

Right now Naked and Afraid. But of all time it would be Brady Bunch.

Everything would have been different if…

I hadn’t torn my ACL in junior year basketball.

Do you have any kiddos?

Oliver. He just turned four.

How do you recharge or take a break?

We have a family cabin in the Adirondacks. So I enjoy backwoods camping on a tranquil mountain lake. No one but the loons, owls, and bullfrogs.

What excites you?

Creativity, discovery, sunrises, teaching, fishing, and photography.

(Below photo is of Ann, Gerrick's wife :)