Penney’s Vet Cape Joins Old Navy

NEW YORK – Michael Cape has joined Gap Inc. as executive vice president of marketing for the Old Navy division.

Cape, whose duties will extend from advertising to in-store promotion and public relations, reports to Dawn Robertson, president of Old Navy, the value-price family apparel division of Gap. He succeeds Susan Wayne, who left the firm two months ago.

For the past six years, Cape has been with J.C. Penney, most recently as vice president and director of brand marketing, where was had direct oversight authority over Penney’s private brands and visual properties. Before joining Penney’s, he was vice president of marketing and visual merchandising for Natural Wonders and held senior marketing positions at Mervyn’s.

Robertson commented, “Michael has strong creative vision and experience in understanding and building brands. He has a strong blend of marketing expertise and leadership skills and is a perfect fit for what we’re looking for to take Old Navy forward.”

Cape said, “I look forward to working with the team to help bring Old Navy back into a leadership position in the retail industry.”

Old Navy finished fiscal 2007 with an 8% decline in January same-store sales versus a 7% decline for the entire company. Although corporate sales fell to $15.9 billion from $16 billion during the fiscal year, the company is expected to disclose detailed divisional results when it releases full-year results on March 1. In the year ended in January 2006, Old Navy was Gap’s largest division with sales of $6.86 billion versus $5.41 billion at Gap North America.