At ThinkFun, we want to encourage children everywhere to realize their full potential by challenging their minds to push farther, probe deeper and think more creatively through game play.
We offer a range of award-winning games for children in important stages of growth and learning. Our desire is to provide an assortment of unique products for a variety of interests and skill levels. Our games are easy to learn and play. They engage single players or groups of players with themes and situations that create energy and excitement.
With our games, kids may yell "ZINGO!" They may escape a traffic jam. They may guess a five-letter word that starts with Z and ends with G. Every game seeks to use the fun of game-playing to engage and challenge kids in a stimulating learning experience.
Our passion is to pioneer the development of games that channel the natural joy and energy that children find in play into a nurturing, family-focused way of building essential thinking skills.
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Philosophy
We believe having fun is great way to learn. That belief is built into every ThinkFun game.
ThinkFun games engage kids and educate kids. They challenge players and nurture the thinking skills important to growth and development. Our games aren’t designed to simply occupy a child’s time. They channel the natural joy and energy of play into a stimulating, family-focused way of building essential thinking skills.
This philosophy has made ThinkFun a leading provider of children’s games. We’ve won more than 200 awards so far. And we continue to work hard to develop even more games that kids will play to have fun – and to build learning skills.
Parents count on us to bring them mind-challenging games that their kids want to play over and over again.
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History
ThinkFun's unique approach to using the fun of game-playing to build children’s thinking skills goes back to our founding in 1985 as Binary Arts. Our first puzzle – called Spin-Out – captured the minds and hearts of kids. It’s now a Games Magazine Hall of Fame classic.
Working from the basement, the husband and wife team of Bill Ritchie and Andrea Barthello made Spin-Out just the starting point in innovative game development. A series of puzzles from this pair quickly became enormously popular. ThinkFun games challenged kid’s minds with problem-solving situations that were first and foremost fun, and always a learning experience.
Today, we continue to be recognized for providing games that engage to educate. For literally millions of customers around the world, ThinkFun is the favorite name for family-fun games.
Our games will always be fun to play and they will always enable children to develop and build essential thinking skills.
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People
Bill Ritchie, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Andrea Barthello, Founder and Chairman of the Board
John Esteban, Chief Operating Officer
Liz Deakin, Director of Marketing
Bill Ritchie is the co-founder and CEO of ThinkFun, the leading manufacturer of mind challenging games. Bill, along with co-founder, Andrea Barthello, started ThinkFun as Binary Arts in 1985. Together they built Binary Arts from a small, home-based business into a four-time INC 500 company with products distributed through some of the world’s most prominent retail companies.
Prior to starting Binary Arts, Bill was involved in historic research and a real estate syndication company in Northern Virginia. Bill is a member of the Young Presidents Organization and a founding President of the World Entrepreneur Organization. Bill spends a great deal of time traveling to various puzzle and education gatherings to share his knowledge and learn more about the needs of game enthusiasts all over the world. In 2000, Bill received the "Sam Loyd Award for Lifetime Achievement in Mechanical Puzzles" from the Association of Game and Puzzle Collectors.
Bill received a degree in American Studies from Wesleyan University and a Masters Degree in City & Regional Planning from Harvard University. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and their two children.
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Andrea Barthello is the co-founder and Chairman of
the Board for ThinkFun. Andrea co-founded ThinkFun in 1985 as Binary Arts, along with and CEO Bill Ritchie. Together they built Binary Arts from a small, home-based business into a four-time INC 500 company with products distributed through some of the world’s most prominent retail companies.
Andrea is ThinkFun’s ambassador in the marketplace and works with a variety of key partners to develop and grow ThinkFun’s business and reputation around the world. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Toy Industry Association (TIA) and in 2006 is Chairman of ToyCon, the TIA’s annual meeting and conference. In 2005 Andrea was recognized by the Washington Business Journal as a "Woman Who Means Business", an award honoring the region's 25 most influential and powerful women executives in the Washington area.
While working full time in various areas of business and health care, Andrea received a BS from George Mason University and did graduate work at American University. Andrea lives in Alexandria, Virginia with her husband and their two children.
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John Esteban began his tenure with ThinkFun in 2005 when he was hired as the company’s Controller. In September 2006, he was promoted to Chief Financial Officer, managing the accounting, finance, and customer service departments of the company. John was promoted again in 2008 to the position of Chief Operating Officer, where he has directed all facets of finance, accounting, IT, and administration management. Under his management, John has been responsible for implementing a number of process and systems improvements that have resulted in greater operational efficiencies, including negotiating several new financial relationships for the company, devising short- and long-term strategic plans, upgrading the company’s management reporting, business intelligence, and data-mining capabilities, and streamlining customer service and order fulfillment procedures.
Prior to joining ThinkFun, John worked as CFO for Discriminating Distribution Enterprises, LP, a subsidiary of Walt Disney Company/ABC, and as Vice President of Finance and Information Systems for Devillier Donegan Enterprises, Inc., a program development and distribution company in Washington, DC.
John has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from De La Salle University, in the Philippines, and an M.B.A. from Marymount University of Virginia. He lives in Herndon with his wife Natalie and their three children.
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Liz Deakin joined ThinkFun in spring 2008 as Director of Marketing and Sales. Liz has worked as a marketing professional for more than 15 years, assisting companies in establishing and defining brand identity and in developing successful strategic marketing and sales plans designed to drive revenue and growth. She has extensive experience in new product launches, public relations, positioning, and market research.
Prior to her position with ThinkFun, Liz served as Director of Marketing for the Walt Disney Company as the Director of Marketing responsible for global marketing and sales for Disney’s Live Family Entertainment Division. She also served as Director of Marketing for the Mirixa Corporation, a clinical health information technologies and consumer health services firm located in Reston, VA. She has worked as a Brand Manager for Feld Entertainment, as well as a consultant for America Online. In addition to a proven track record of marketing success resulting in significant increases in sales and ROI, Liz has been honored with a 2000 SABRE Award for Superior Achievement in Branding and Reputation, a Bernays Award for Excellence in Public Relations and the coveted Silver Anvil from the Public Relations Society of America meeting global excellence in the PR profession. Liz also has first-hand knowledge of teaching and the concerns of educators, having worked for several years as a High School English Teacher in the Fairfax County School system.
Liz graduated with a B.A. in English from Roanoke College. She lives in Reston, VA with her husband and two dogs.
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