The Gap Board of Directors announced today that president and chief executive officer Art Peck will step down from his position and from the company’s Board.
Peck will depart from the company after a brief transition. Effective immediately, Robert J. Fisher, the company’s current non-executive chairman of the Board, will also serve as president and chief executive officer on an interim basis.
Additionally, the Board has appointed Bobby Martin, chair of its compensation and management development committee, as lead independent director.
No specific reason was given for Peck’s departure from the position he has held since 2015.
“On behalf of the entire Board, I want to thank Art for his many contributions to Gap Inc., spanning a nearly 15-year career with the company,” said Mr. Fisher. He added, “Under Art’s tenure as CEO, we have made progress investing in capabilities that bode well for the future such as expanding the omni-channel customer experience and building our digital capabilities.”
According to a press release, a key member of the founding family, Fisher brings strong leadership and invaluable perspective from his 35-year history with Gap Inc., where he has served in a variety of senior executive positions, including interim president and chief executive officer.
He has served on the Board of Directors since 1990 and has also served as non-executive chairman since February 2015.
Bobby Martin has served on the Board since 2002 including serving as the lead independent director from 2003 to 2015.
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He is a retail industry veteran with over 35 years of experience. As the former chief executive officer of Wal-Mart International and chief information officer for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Mr. Martin brings extensive global governance and executive management experience.
“As the Board evaluates potential successors, our focus will be on strong leadership candidates with operational excellence to drive greater efficiency, speed and profitability,” said Fisher. “In the meantime, we will continue to focus on leveraging the power of our brands and the talented teams that lead them to improve execution and better position the portfolio for growth.”
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In conjunction with this announcement, the company also today reported comparable sales and provided earnings per share guidance for the third quarter ended November 2, 2019, and revised earnings per share guidance for fiscal year 2019.
“This was a challenging quarter, as macro impacts and slower traffic further pressured results that have been hampered by product and operating challenges across key brands,” said Teri List-Stoll, executive vice president and chief financial officer, Gap Inc.
“We have tremendous confidence in our brands and the talented organization that supports them, and we are seeing progress in some key areas. However, there is more work to do to leverage the capabilities we have invested in and deliver the profitable growth we know these brands are capable of delivering.”
Gap Inc. will release its third quarter earnings results via press release on November 21, 2019 at 1:15 p.m. Pacific Time. In addition, the company will host a summary of Gap Inc.’s third quarter results during a live conference call and webcast on Thursday, November 21, 2019 from approximately 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Pacific Time.
The last few weeks have not been great for CEO’s as Steve Easterbrook was just fired from McDonald’s and Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank resigned in October, followed by Nike’s CEO, Mark Parker.
And don’t get the Reel 360 team started on Papa John’s.
SOURCE: GAP
