Gap Inc. is continuing its management shakeup. Yesterday, Lee Bird was promoted to COO of the Gap’s domestic division. Bird was previously CFO of Gap’s Old Navy division.
Patti Johnson is succeeding Bird as finance chief at Old Navy.
Bird joined the apparel retailer in April 2001 as finance chief for Old Navy. Before that, he held senior finance positions at Gateway Inc., Allied Signal Inc., and Ford Motor Company.
Johnson joins Old Navy from clothing retailer Kohl’s Corp., where she was CFO. Earlier, she worked in finance at The Disney Store Inc. and Family Restaurants Inc.
Interestingly, Kohl’s management failed to mention Johnson’s move to the Gap when it announced her departure. The company, based in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, issued a statement indicating that Johnson was moving her family back to California for personal reasons. At Kohl’s, interim finance duties will be taken on by Arlene Meier, who was Kohl’s CFO before taking on her current position of COO.
Management at the San Francisco-based Gap is looking to give the company a makeover after the retailer shed some 60 percent of its stock price. Though the company posted a profit in February on the strength of holiday sales, management recently warned that sales were slow in February.
Management changes started last fall, when the company brought in new CEO Paul Pressler from Walt Disney Co. Pressler, in turn, replaced CFO Heidi Kunz with Byron Pollitt, a colleague from Disney. Since then, Gap has made a number of executive changes, including bringing in new clothing designers. Really — what’s a makeover without a new outfit?
Other CFO News
- Steven Allan, former finance chief of failed cable company Media Vision Inc., has been sentenced to 41 months in prison after being convicted of mail, wire, and securities fraud. Allan was charged with a number of different offenses connected with a long-running scheme to cook Media Vision’s books. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in 1998.
- Privately held risk-management agency McQueary Henry Bowles Troy LLP (MHBT), one of the largest independent commercial risk management agencies in Texas, named Dennis M. Hensel as its first CFO. Hensel was previously controller for Insurance Marketers of America Inc.
- P.H. Glatfelter Co. on Tuesday announced it has named John van Roden Jr. to the CFO post. Van Roden was previously senior vice president and CFO at Conectiv. York, Penn.-based Glatfelter’s former CFO George MacKenzie left the company in June.
