By Larkin Street Youth Services
Katrina O’Connell started her career in investment banking research, covering department stores and mass merchandisers. She was drawn to solving complex problems and decided to shift to retail operations, joining the Gap brand to support finance and inventory management.
Over a 25-year career, O’Connell has held positions with sister brands Banana Republic and Old Navy as well as parent company The Gap Inc.
In March 2020, she became executive vice president and chief financial officer. In addition to navigating the financial implications of shutting down the company’s physical stores during the pandemic, she also had to address the business’s financing, which was due to mature.
“I actually needed to go out and raise $4 billion worth of cash to keep the stores going and the company going,” she said. “As you can imagine, that was a time when the bond markets were closing. Nobody wanted to take a bet on apparel retail.”
Since then, O’Connell has helped lead a transformation plan at the company called Power Plan 2023. “We do a lot of scenario planning,” she said. “Gone are the days of a monthly forecast and then using that forecast to figure out what you’re doing. There are multiple scenarios, and everything needs to be refreshed consistently.”
O’Connell has also been instrumental in strategic acquisitions. In August 2021, Gap bought Drapr Inc., a technology company that allows customers to try on clothing virtually using digital avatars. Less than two months later, Gap acquired Context-based 4 Casting Ltd., a startup that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve retail operations.
Currently, O’Connell and her team are in the process of modernizing the company’s financial systems. “What’s been most clarifying over the past year with CEO Richard Dickson on board is the focus on the fundamentals,” she said. “…What we’ve realized is without that strong foundation and without the strong processes and organization, we just can’t sustain the level of growth that we’d like to accomplish.”
O’Connell is also a member of the Gap Foundation audit committee and board chair of Mount Tamalpais School, a private school serving students in kindergarten to eighth grade in Mill Valley. She is also a member of the board of advisors at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and serves on the board of directors and as audit chair at the Chamberlain Group, a portfolio investment of Blackstone.
Katrina O’Connell, The Gap Inc.
TITLE: Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
TENURE: March 2020 to present
BACKGROUND: 25 years with The Gap Inc., including Old Navy and Banana Republic
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