Michelle Gass will change Chip Bergh as Levi Strauss CEO in January

Levi’s CEO Chip Bergh is looking it quits and handing the reins over to his long-anointed successor Michelle Gass, the previous CEO of Kohl’s, the corporate introduced on Thursday. 

Gass will take over the chief govt place on January 29 whereas Bergh will formally retire on April 26. He’ll keep on as govt vice chair of the board till then. As soon as he retires, he’ll function an advisor by way of the top of the fiscal 12 months. 

“Chip has remodeled this firm and can go away it much better than when he arrived. I do know we’ll proceed to profit from Chip’s strategic perspective as he continues to serve on the corporate’s board,” stated Bob Eckert, the chairman of Levi’s board.

Bergh took over as Levi’s CEO in 2011, and is one in every of only a handful of people that has run the corporate and was not associated to its unique founder, Levi Strauss. Throughout Bergh’s tenure, he led Levi’s by way of its March 2019 IPO, its acquisition of Past Yoga and its deeper growth into ladies’s choices.

He additionally remodeled the corporate right into a direct-to-consumer powerhouse that’s now not solely reliant on its wholesale companions. In doing so, reinvigorated the Levi’s model and stored it related regardless of its 170-year lengthy legacy.

“The Levi’s model is the strongest it has ever been, and as we pivot to turn into extra of an omni-channel, direct-to-consumer retailer, it’s time for brand spanking new management,” Bergh stated in a press release. “Whereas I’ve identified Michelle for greater than a decade, my time working carefully together with her this previous 12 months has given me nice confidence that her expertise, monitor file of innovation and influence, and fervour for the enterprise will place the corporate for sustainable, worthwhile progress and vital shareholder and stakeholder worth creation.”

Levi’s appointed Gass as its subsequent CEO in November 2022. She began at Levi’s in January, and was accountable for main the corporate’s namesake model, together with its product, merchandising and advertising features, together with its digital and world industrial operations. She has set her sights on boosting worldwide progress and transitioning the corporate right into a direct-to-consumer first group.

“I’m honored to be stepping in to guide this iconic model and firm, one which I’ve deeply admired and revered for a few years. Levi’s is greater than a denim icon; it is a part of our cultural cloth and a permanent image of high quality, innovation and progress,” Gass stated in a press release.