This article was first published by Retail Dive and republished by CFO.com.
Eric Chan, most recently chief financial officer of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team, has been named chief business and strategy officer at Gap Inc., effective last week. Newly arrived Gap CEO Richard Dickson is beefing up his C-suite, with two key appointments, announced Friday. Chan, as well as newly named chief people officer Amy Thompson, will report directly to Dickson, according to a company press release. Thompson most recently served in that role at Mattel, where Dickson was operations chief until he took up the CEO reins at Gap in August.
Dickson’s first hires may come from worlds involving games and toys rather than apparel, but he doesn’t sound like he’s playing around.
“Eric Chan and Amy Thompson will play a critical role in solidifying our foundation as we redefine Gap for a new era — one where operational rigor becomes a consistent cornerstone of strength for us, bolstered by best-in-class talent and a culture of creativity — all paving the way for brand reinvigoration and cultural relevance," he said in a statement.
Chan has more than two decades of financial and operational leadership experience, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to startups, per Gap’s press release. Before his five-year stint at the Clippers, Chan was chief operations officer for The Bouqs Company and chief financial officer at subscription box retailer Loot Crate.
Thompson rejoins Dickson from Mattel, where she led human resources for six years. Before that, she was chief people officer at shoe brand Toms for about five years, per her LinkedIn page.
Despite some signs of progress at the company’s Gap and Old Navy brands in the most recent quarter, Dickson made clear that the company has a lot of work to do in both merchandising and marketing across the portfolio. That’s especially true at Gap, where sales have plummeted in recent years, as the brand lost its place in the cultural conversation. Gap’s brand awareness remains high despite that, he told analysts in November.
Dickson jumped to Gap as Mattel’s Barbie comeback defined the summer of 2023. He acknowledged shortly after his arrival that newfound financial strength at Gap stems in large part from painful cuts under interim CEO Bob Martin, which had included eliminating 1,800 jobs in April on top of 500 layoffs in September of 2022.
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