Elliot Handler daughter, Barbara, who was the namesake of Barbie dolls; and a son, Kenneth (who died of a brain tumor in 1994) who was the namesake of Ken dolls. While a struggling art student and designer of light fixtures, Handler partnered with Harold Matson to design a realistic-looking miniature piano that received roughly 300,000 orders; however, they mispriced the product and lost a dime on each one produced. Mattel received its name from business partners Harold Matt Matson and Elliot Handler in 1945. Elliot's wife, Ruth, took Matson's role when the Handlers bought his share in the late 1940's. Ruth Handler
Sheryl Handler tool with which to develop software programs for artificial intelligence. Handler helped found the Thinking Machines Corporation, where she served as CEO until 1992. After the Thinking Machines Corporation went bankrupt in 1995, Handler and several other former employees founded Ab Initio Software. Sheryl Handler Sheryl Handler is an American businesswoman recognized as one of the founders of Thinking Machines and is the founder and current CEO of Ab Initio. Handler attended Case Western Reserve University for interior design and received her master's degree in landscape architecture from Harvard University. Handler had previously participated in the start-up of the Genetics