Mary Couzin – the Networker

By Peter Budig

The toy and game industry exerts this mysterious power to captivate people. Nowhere else can you find so many inventors, founders, networkers and partners who are completely dedicated to the cause, so much so that has become their raison d’être. This industry not only creates careers, it absorbs lives and transforms them into destinies. You can meet a lot of unique individuals here. But Mary Couzin’s life’s work even goes beyond that.

Never heard of Mary Couzin? That might have something to do with the fact that she’s American and works primarily in the US market. It also might be because “games as a cultural asset” has still not received the recognition it deserves around the world. Or, one of Mary’s often repeated quotes from play expert Tim Walsh: “If you sell a million songs, you end up on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Sell a million books and you’ll be on the New York Times bestseller list. But if you sell over 100 million Jenga games, most people still won’t know your name. That’s equivalent to 100 platinum records! But our inventors rarely get the attention they deserve.”

Game inventor, consumer fair founder, networker and entrepreneur – Mary Couzin is the beating heart of the industry

An intelligent, independent mind, resolute attitudes towards life and a disarming openness, all paired with a keen understanding of people and their networks – Mary Couzin’s behaviour goes far beyond the typical American “So nice to meet you”. She has a keen instinct for the usefulness of situations and people. But her energetic determination comes across as mild, partly because it serves such a good cause. Mary is deeply grateful for the many mentors and champions who have supported her along the way—among them Alan Hassenfeld, whose recent passing has left a true void in the industry. Inspired by their guidance, Mary gives back to the toy and game community as much as she can. What she has achieved so far is incredible. So, first things first:

Raised in an extended family

Oldest of six siblings, Mary Couzin was born in Hammond, Indiana (about 40 km south of Chicago) on 15 March. Her mother was the most influential person in her life. She raves enthusiastically about the sense of solidarity found within this large family: “When I set up the Chicago Toy & Game Fair in 2003, my mum and aunts came and helped out wherever they were needed.” Incidentally, at over 60 years of age, her mother began studying and successfully completed her university degree. “She believed in the value of education as something that no-one can take away from you. And she taught me how to be persistent,” Couzin recalls.

Her first kiss

Mary Couzin’s career path has been eclectic, and not always straightforward: after graduating from university with two degrees, she worked in international benefits and compensation, as a jewellery designer on the side, and occasionally turned her hobby of baking bread and sculpted cakes into a part-time job. For a long time, she worked in the real estate industry. Her “first kiss”, the one that sparked her passion for the games industry, came “when a friend at Western Publishing (now part of Hasbro) gave me prototypes to test and told me stories about inventors. From then on, I knew I had to be part of this world.” Thus was her passion ignited: “I loved the stories and thought I could do it too... just like the 5 to 10 new inventors who approach me every week and believe they can do it... and a few will succeed.” While working in the real estate industry, she invented her first game: “The most successful board game I invented was with a co-worker, June Fobes Keeley - Hollywood's Reel Schpeel. It was in the 1990s and it was the first big game that made use of film quotes and film trivia. That was the decisive spark: It has begun. You’re in the hands of destiny” (Genesis). These days, Mary Couzin sums it up by saying, “I found my tribe.” She quickly made a name for herself in the toy industry.

Her role models among game designers are Klaus Teuber und Leslie Scott

“One of the highlights of my life was interviewing Klaus Teuber (inventor of Settlers of Catan who died in April 2023) 25 years ago. I was the first person in America to do so – before most people here had even heard of him or Catan. He proudly boasted that 50 per cent of the people who played Catan were female, which was remarkable at the time.” Her second inventor role model (and great friend) is a brilliant Englishwoman: Leslie Scott, who launched Jenga in 1983. “Although Jenga isn’t actually a board game, it’s established itself in cultures around the world. When you say Jenga, everyone knows what you mean. What most people don’t realise is how much perseverance it took to keep Jenga going. Leslie mortgaged her own house, then her mother mortgaged hers, just to “keep the game going”. And that’s not all – she invented more than 40 other games. If Jenga is about balance, then Leslie’s story is all about perseverance.

The networker

If there’s one thing, apart from entrepreneurial initiative, that defines Couzin, it’s her talent and persistence in forming and expanding networks. “The first thing I ever learned was that you have to find collaborators to be successful.” She was an early adopter of modern communication tools. “I publish several newsletters – Play in Education (PIE News), POP News and IDEA (Inventor Designer Elves and Authors News).” This is how existing initiatives became aware of her: “The publication I’m most proud of is The Bloom Report.” Founded by Phillip Bloom in 1999, this trade publication rapidly became the go-to source for the industry, summarising all the week’s news in one place. When Bloom decided to retire, he entrusted the report to Couzin, who has since expanded the publication, turning it into the industry’s mouthpiece.

SPIEL Essen was the inspiration

From an early age, Mary Couzin travelled to places where games were celebrated and made many visits to Germany. It was at SPIEL, an annual four-day public boardgame trade fair often called the Essen Game Fair, after the city where it is held, that the spark of inspiration was ignited. In 2003, the Chicago Toy and Game Fair was founded, giving rise to the catchy acronym ChiTAG. It has come to symbolise an international gathering from as many as 25 countries of the toy and board game industry, inventors (kid and adult) and players. ChiTAG has given rise to further initiatives, most notably the online portal called People of Play (POP, 2020), a diversity that Couzin herself sums up today as follows: “We’ve created spaces – both in real life and online – where the toy and play community can meet up, learn and, of course, play. Our live events, POP Week and ChiTAG, as well as our digital hub, PeopleofPlay.com, are places where magic is made.” ChiTAG is now North America’s largest consumer trade show for toys and games and is now organised by People of Play™. In 2025, it’ll take place from 6 to 9 November 2025. The events, which include the Inventor Pitch, the Innovation Conference, the TAGIE Awards and the actual trade fair, will be held at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Centre in Rosemont, Illinois.

Fostering young talent

To boost the industry, Couzin, a keen networker, focused at an early stage on promoting board games among children and young people. The Young Inventor Challenge (YIC) is an event that provides a platform for young inventors. It is open to children aged 6 to 18 and will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2025. As Couzin recalls, “over the years, some participants have signed licensing agreements and even developed careers in the toy industry. The YIC has turned into a programme that benefits the whole community. Toy and game shops now run YIC summer camps, which bring in more customers, strengthen the community, and attract local media attention. Educators are integrating the YIC into their curriculum, and manufacturers are starting to host the programme at their offices.” Last year kids from across the U.S. and five countries participated in-person or virtually.

The coup of a lifetime: the New York Toy Fair and ChiTAG join forces

One of the largest toy fairs in the world is the New York Toy Fair, founded in 1903. It takes place after the Spielwarenmesse in Nuremberg in mid-February at New York City’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Centre. Only toy retailers, representatives of the toy industry and the trade press have access to it. It is a trade fair similar to the Spielwarenmesse in Nuremberg and is organised by the American trade association, the toy association. On 6 August 2024, this trade association issued a press release: “The Toy Association™ announced today that The People of Play™ (POP) and its assets will be integrated into the Association and that Mary Couzin, founder of People of Play, will join the senior leadership team at the Association. Couzin will be responsible for guiding the future and growth of this new addition to the Association, effective immediately.” This means that the largest U.S. trade show and ChiTAG, the largest U.S. public toy and game fair, will now be organised, developed and held under one roof. Here, too, there is a certain parallel with Germany, where the Spielwarenmesse and SPIEL Essen have been operating under one roof since 2022.

A tribute her mum: Mary Couzin is the great tinkerer of the games industry

To round things off, it was her mum, who was her first and greatest mentor, who set the ball rolling. “She was a tinkerer and loved to make toys.” Her daughter’s work is a reminder of this passion for crafting. Building on her intuition, Couzin has gradually created ever more resonance for the entire toy and gameg industry. It's an ongoing process; Mary Couzin’s elements aren’t glue, wood and thread, but people and opportunities as well as exceptionally good communication to relentlessly drive the mission forward.

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence” – her philosophy of life as penned by Calvin Coolidge

After all, Mary Couzin learned perseverance from her mother, and both of them look up to Calvin Coolidge, who was the 30th President of the United States from 1923 to 1929. He once wrote: “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan Press On! has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”

About the author
Peter Budig studied Protestant theology, history and political science. He worked as a freelance journalist, headed up the editorial department of a large advertising paper in Nuremberg for ten years and was the editor of Nuremberg’s Abendzeitung newspaper. He has been freelancing again since 2014 as a journalist, book author and copywriter. Storytelling is absolutely his favourite form.