Judd Zebersky ended his tenure as CEO of Jazwares on March 20, 2026, stepping away from the company he founded after nearly three decades. Chief Operating Officer David Neustein, who had served in that role for 14 years, took over as CEO on March 23, inheriting a business with roughly 1,400 employees and a global footprint spanning more than 100 countries.
The Origin of Jazwares
Judd Zebersky‘s entry into toys came through a personal choice, not a career path. A graduate of the University of Miami School of Law who had run his own firm, he made a break from the legal profession in the late 1990s and flew to China to learn toy manufacturing from scratch.
He spent months learning blow molding, injection molding, rotocasting, and hair rooting techniques from workers in factories across southern China. He traveled roads where, as he described it, entire families shared a single motorcycle. That immersive approach to education shaped the company’s internal DNA and how it trained future engineers and designers.
Building Through Licenses and Acquisitions
Jazwares secured early traction through licensed toy lines built around popular entertainment properties: Minecraft, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Fortnite among them. The acquisition of Wicked Cool Toys in 2019 and Kellytoy in 2020 added new product lines and partners. Kellytoy was the source of two major assets: a Pokémon license and the Squishmallows brand.
Squishmallows went viral, fueled by TikTok and collectors that included Lady Gaga and Kim Kardashian. Individual units retailed between $5 and $30, and more than 100 million sold in one year. Alleghany Capital Corporation took a majority ownership stake in Jazwares in 2016 after an initial investment in 2014. Berkshire Hathaway became the company’s parent after acquiring Alleghany in Q4 2022.
Judd Zebersky also received the South Florida Business Journal’s Ultimate CEOs recognition in 2024 and appeared on The Business Report’s Top 50 Entrepreneurs list in 2023. The Jazwares Cares program he established at the company’s founding has donated millions of toys to children’s hospitals, Title I schools, and organizations like Make-A-Wish and Toys for Tots. See related link for more information.
Learn more about Judd Zebersky on https://news.miami.edu/law/stories/2024/10/judd-and-laura-zebersky-toymakers-extraordinaire.html