Ralph Shaffer

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Ralph Shaffer was Senior Vice President of Creative and director of new-product development at American Greetings. Joining the company's design studio in 1964, Shaffer worked under Ziggy cartoonist Tom Wilson (cartoonist) and was instrumental in developing several commercially successful greeting card lines including 'Soft Touch' and '78th Street'. Shaffer moved on from that position to found and lead the company's Those Characters From Cleveland division, creating and launching several juvenile character properties including Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake, My Pet Monster, Get-Along Gang, Popples and Holly Hobbie.

During the 1980s, he worked with Bernard Loomis. As well as being the creator of Madballs, he also was a character development director for 1986's The Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation.

Shaffer left Those Characters From Cleveland in 1999 to join American Greetings' online division, AG Interactive. After launching AmericanGreetings.com and acquiring competitors such as BlueMountain.com and eGreetings.com, Shaffer led the creative part of the team that pioneered the subscription-model content site. The AG Interactive network is now the world's largest online paid content subscription service.

Ralph Shaffer retired from American Greetings in 2002 after 38 years of employment.