Sonia Syngal is the CEO of Gap. Syngal has earlier been with Sun Microsystems and Ford. She joined Gap in 2004. She went on to become CEO of Old Navy, Gap’s value chain, after leading the portfolio’s global supply chain and product-to-market model, and serving as managing director of Gap in Europe.
Gap is currently the largest specialty retailer in the United States, with 1,35,000 employees and 3,727 stores worldwide, including 2400 in the US. The company’s management structure will be slimmed down in order to speed up decision making as well as a refreshed senior compensation plan, based around performance and accountability. Gap owns brands like Old Navy, Banana Republic, Athleta, and Hill City. Syngal is expected to deliver value from the portfolio of brands over the long term.
India-born Syngal, moved to Canada and later to the US with her family when she was a child. She is the highest ranked Indian-American female CEO of a Fortune 500 company after Indra Nooyi stepped down as Pepsi head in 2018. Although the number of women heading Fortune 500 companies is now at a record high at 33, they constitute only around six per cent of female CEOs.
