Jenny Ming

Most people don’t even know that an Asian American woman founded the clothing brand that most Americans have worn. And even fewer know her story. Jenny’s family fled communist China to Macau when she was a baby and she immigrated to San Francisco at the age of 9. She graduated from San Jose State with a home economics degree thinking she would become a teacher. She would end up working at Mervyns and become known as the best denim buyer in the country. The CEO of Gap. at the time, was retail icon Mickey Drexler. Drexler called Jenny out of the blue and wanted her to come to Gap Inc. because of her stellar reputation. He would eventually tap her to start a new value brand because of her impressive rise within the company. Old Navy was wildly successful and would go on to generate $8 billion annually and Jenny would become the President. All while raising THREE children.

Since that time, Jenny has gone on to become CEO of Charlotte Russe and serve on the board of directors for Kaiser Permanente, Levi Strauss & Co.., Affirm, Paper Source, Poshmark, Kendra Scott and Rothy's. As a grandmother, she thought she was done running companies, but Rothy's asked her to step in as CEO last year to turn the company around. Now on top of leading a company, she also has spearheaded a mentorship program from women leadership at the Hyundai Motor Company.