Sonia Syngal

Sonia Syngal
Nationality	American
Education	Kettering University (BS, mechanical engineering, 1993)
Occupation	Business executive
Company	Gap Inc.
Title	Former president and chief executive officer, Gap Inc.

Sonia Syngal is an American business executive who was president and chief executive officer of Gap Inc. from March 2020 to July 2022. She had joined the company in 2004 and led its largest brand, Old Navy, as president and chief executive from April 2016 until her promotion to the group role.

Syngal took charge of the company days after the coronavirus pandemic forced the closure of its stores across North America, and her tenure was defined by that disruption and its aftermath. The group reported a net loss of $665 million in the financial year to January 2021 and returned to a net profit of $256 million the following year, before trading deteriorated again in the first half of 2022. She stepped down on 11 July 2022 and resigned from the board the same day.

Fortune magazine ranked her 38th on its Most Powerful Women list in 2020 and 35th in 2021. Since leaving the company she has taken non-executive board seats at the shopping centre owner Tanger and at Tractor Supply Company.

Early life and education

Syngal graduated from Kettering University in Michigan in 1993, where she studied mechanical engineering. Fortune gave her age as 51 in its 2021 ranking, indicating a birth year of about 1970. She returned to Kettering to deliver the university's commencement address on 17 June 2017, by which time she was running Old Navy.

Career

Ford and Sun Microsystems

Before entering retail, Syngal spent her career in manufacturing and technology. Gap Inc.'s own account of her background records that she held roles in product design, quality and manufacturing engineering at Ford Motor Company, and that she later led manufacturing operations, logistics and supply chain management at Sun Microsystems.

Rising through Gap Inc., 2004 to 2016

Syngal joined the company in 2004 and spent more than a decade in international and supply chain roles rather than in brand management. According to the group's own proxy statement, she served as managing director of its Europe business, as senior vice president of its International division, and as senior vice president of its International Outlet division, before taking responsibility for the global supply chain and the product-to-market model across its brands. By 2017 she had worked across the Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Athleta and Intermix brands.

Old Navy, 2016 to 2020

Syngal was appointed president and chief executive of Old Navy in April 2016. The brand was by then the group's largest by sales, and had grown from a single store opened in the United States in 1994 to more than 1,200 stores including company-operated locations in Canada and Mexico and franchised stores elsewhere. At the time of her 2017 commencement address she was described as leading a workforce of 56,000 across all of the brand's geographies and channels.

In January 2018 she was appointed to the board of governors of Boys and Girls Clubs of America, which described her at the time as president and chief executive of Old Navy.

Chief executive of Gap Inc., 2020 to 2022

On 5 March 2020 the company disclosed that its board had appointed Syngal as chief executive officer and president, effective 23 March 2020. Her contract set an annual base salary of $1,300,000, an annual target bonus equal to 175 per cent of that salary, and long-term equity incentive awards with an annual target value of $9,000,000.

She took the role as the coronavirus pandemic closed the group's stores. In the financial year to 30 January 2021, her first as chief executive, net sales fell to $13.8 billion and the company recorded an operating loss of $862 million and a net loss of $665 million, equivalent to a diluted loss per share of $1.78. Gross margin for that year was 34.1 per cent.

Trading recovered sharply in the following year. For the year to 29 January 2022, net sales rose 21 per cent to $16.7 billion, with store sales up 36 per cent and online sales up 2 per cent against the prior year. Gross margin improved to 39.8 per cent, the company reported operating income of $810 million against the previous year's loss, and net income of $256 million, or $0.67 per diluted share. The group also recorded a $325 million loss on the extinguishment of debt, largely tender and make-whole premiums on secured notes issued during the pandemic. At the end of that year it employed approximately 97,000 people.

Syngal received a pay increase to $1,400,000 in April 2022, which the compensation committee described as part of its usual annual review and as positioning her relative to internal and external benchmarks. Three months later she left the company.

Departure, July 2022

On 11 July 2022 the group announced that Syngal was stepping down as president and chief executive and had resigned from the board, both with immediate effect. Executive chairman Bob Martin took the role of interim chief executive. The same announcement named Horacio Barbeito as president and chief executive of Old Navy.

The company recorded her exit as a termination without cause, under which she became eligible for benefits set out in a post-termination agreement previously filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Its proxy statement the following year described her as having been "terminated in July 2022".

Major deals and strategic decisions

Power Plan 2023

In October 2020, seven months into Syngal's tenure, the company unveiled a strategy it called Power Plan 2023. The group described it as a long-term plan to grow by drawing on the collective power of its four lifestyle brands, to enable growth through competitive omni-channel capabilities and scaled operations, and to extend its customer reach across every age, body and occasion. Its stated initiatives included continued investment in the online business, including automation and machine learning intended both to improve the customer experience and to reduce the cost of shipping and processing online orders and returns, the launch of an integrated rewards programme to encourage loyalty and cross-shopping between the brands, and expansion into new markets, categories and demographics.

European retrenchment

Under Syngal the group withdrew from direct operation of much of its European store estate. During the year to January 2022 it transitioned its company-operated stores in France to a franchise model and signed an agreement to transition its Gap stores in Italy. It also closed its company-operated stores in the United Kingdom and Ireland, entering a joint venture agreement to continue serving customers in those markets online beyond that financial year. By the end of that year the company operated stores directly in the United States, Canada, Japan, Italy, China, Taiwan and Mexico.

Acquisitions and partnerships

The company made two technology acquisitions during the same year, buying Drapr Inc., a three-dimensional virtual fit technology business, and Context-based 4 Casting Ltd., known as CB4, which worked in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Commercially, the period included new releases from the Yeezy Gap collaboration, the launch of Gap Home at Walmart, and promotional partnerships with athletes and celebrities at Athleta.

Balance sheet

The group had issued senior secured notes during the pandemic to shore up liquidity. It subsequently used the proceeds of a new senior notes offering, together with cash on hand, to purchase or redeem all of those previously outstanding secured notes, a refinancing that produced the $325 million loss on extinguishment of debt recorded in the year to January 2022.

Leadership and management style

Syngal came to the group's top job from an operations and engineering background rather than from merchandising, having run its supply chain and its international divisions before taking charge of a brand. The company's own assessment of her experience cited expertise in management, talent development, supply chain and global operations.

Fortune's 2021 profile characterised her strategy as shrinking the Gap and Banana Republic chains while strengthening Old Navy and Athleta, the two brands that had been growing fastest.

Financial and market performance

Across the two full financial years Syngal led the company, reported results moved from a substantial loss to a modest profit before deteriorating again. The table below is drawn from the group's own annual report for the year to 29 January 2022.

Financial year	Net sales	Gross margin	Operating result	Net result	Diluted per share
To 30 January 2021	$13.8 billion	34.1 per cent	Loss of $862 million	Loss of $665 million	Loss of $1.78
To 29 January 2022	$16.7 billion	39.8 per cent	Income of $810 million	Income of $256 million	Income of $0.67

Compensation

The company's summary compensation table reported Syngal's total compensation as $21,905,521 for the financial year to January 2021, $18,260,915 for the year to January 2022, and $11,232,972 for the year to January 2023, the last of which covered only the part of the year she served. Her target equity award for that final year was $11,000,000.

Following her departure, the group disclosed post-termination payments to Syngal of $2,100,000 related to salary, with no bonus payment, alongside $32,466 in health benefits and $22,950 in financial counselling.

Board memberships and outside roles

Syngal joined the board of governors of Boys and Girls Clubs of America in January 2018.

On 23 September 2024 the shopping centre owner Tanger elected her a director with immediate effect, expanding its board from nine members to 10. The company's announcement credited her with nearly 30 years of industry experience and a record in global supply chain operations, brand management and product-to-market innovation, and described her Old Navy tenure as a strategic turnaround that expanded the brand's market presence and e-commerce capabilities.

In February 2026 Tractor Supply Company, the largest rural lifestyle retailer in the United States, appointed her to its board of directors, citing more than 30 years of experience in retail, e-commerce and supply chain leadership.

Recognition

Fortune magazine placed Syngal 38th on its Most Powerful Women ranking in 2020, her first year as chief executive, and 35th in 2021. Its 2021 entry listed her affiliation as Gap Inc. and her age as 51.

Tanger's 2024 announcement of her election to its board credited Syngal with nearly 30 years of industry experience and a record in global supply chain operations, brand management and product-to-market innovation, and said that she had led Old Navy through a strategic turnaround that expanded the brand's market presence and e-commerce capabilities. The same statement described her years running Gap Inc. as having carried the business through a period of unprecedented challenges. Tractor Supply's announcement two years later credited her with more than 30 years of leadership in retail, e-commerce and supply chain.

Syngal returned to her own university as its commencement speaker in June 2017, an invitation Kettering extended while she was running Old Navy.

See also

• Gap Inc.
• Old Navy
• Banana Republic
• Athleta

External links

• Tanger Inc. investor relations