Gap Recruits Nike Talent Again: Maggie Gauger Named CEO of Athleta

Gap strengthens its top leadership with talent from Nike. The sports fashion company has announced the signing of Maggie Gauger, a 20-year Nike veteran, as global brand president and CEO of Athleta. Gauger will join the company on August 1st, following the resignation of Chris Blakeslee.

Gap CEO Richard Dickson thanked Blakeslee for the work he has done, and said the company believes in “Athleta’s incredible potential in the women’s sportswear market” and within its portfolio of offerings. About Gauger, he said that with her Gap seeks to “revitalize the brand,“ according to a statement.

Gauger comes to Gap after 20 years at Nike, where she most recently led the women’s division of the business in North America, responsible for driving growth and customer acquisition. Gauger, for his part, has said that Athleta seems to him a brand “with a strong purpose and great potential yet to be exploited.“

Gap is relying on Gauger to boost Athleta, which reported a drop in sales in the first three months of the year

Last year, Gap also signed former Nike vice president of fashion design Tanya Flynn as its new chief design officer. In fact, Flynn was Nike’s vice president of fashion design from September 2022 until taking her new position at Gap.

Gap ended the first three months of the current fiscal year with growth of more than 2%, with Gap and Old Navy as the drivers. Despite sales declines at Banana Republic and Athleta, the company closed the period with a more than 22% increase in net income.

The American Gap was founded at the end of the 1960s by Doris and Donald Fisher as a store that concentrated the entire Levi’s offer. The business expanded until, in 1972, the group launched its own brand and abandoned the distribution of Levi’s. Today, the group operates the Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Athleta and Intermix brands and has become the third largest fashion distribution company in the world.