Toy executive turns C-suite failure into his greatest success

Jamie Gallagher played around a lot during his 40-year career running big companies and divisions. First there were lots of Legos. Then there were the towns, families and villages of Playmobil. And then there were the art supplies, from calligraphy pens to watercolor markers, made and sold by art supply giant Faber-Castell.

Gallagher has the affable and easy-going nature to fit snugly into those roles too, laughing, for example, as he recalled the quirky story of how he landed a sales job with Lego back in 1981 — long before the product became a global sensation. (Gallagher had just graduated from Notre Dame and when a job he really wanted with an ad agency in Chicago fell through, he answered a newspaper help wanted ad for a position selling an unnamed toy. A few weeks later he was traveling the country with sample bags of Legos for independent toy stores, later moving up to KMart and Sears. “As we like to say, we built that brand brick-by-brick,” he quips.)

One thing Gallagher is serious about is how his biggest career failure led to what he calls his greatest business, and leadership, epiphany and success.