(New York) The American clothing group Gap announced on Wednesday that it had found its new boss, after a year of research: Richard Dickson, currently director of operations at Mattel in charge of marketing partnerships.

Mr. Dickson, a member of the board of directors of the Gap group (Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic, Athleta) since November 2022, is due to take up his position as chief executive on August 22, the group said in a press release.

At Mattel, “he was a key architect of the global transformation that reinvigorated Mattel’s iconic brands…while restoring business growth,” Gap continued.

According to Neil Saunders, director of the analysis company GlobalData, he was responsible in particular for the supervision of marketing partnerships and in particular concerning the Barbie brand.

Gap is one of more than 100 retailers to sign licensing agreements with Mattel for the global release of the Barbie movie last week, which has been the subject of an intense global marketing campaign and has signed the best launch of 2023 in North America with $155 million in weekend revenue.

The Gap clothing line stamped Barbie for adults (men and women) and for children is also featured on the institutional site of the ready-to-wear group.

“It’s a good appointment, let’s hope that Mr. Dickson will be given the time and latitude to implement changes that should have been undertaken a long time ago,” Mr. Saunders said.

“As history shows, Gap’s biggest shareholders can be reluctant to adapt and exercise too much control over the direction of the group,” he pointed out.

The post of general manager has been vacant since the resignation in July 2022 of Sonia Syngal, appointed in March 2020. No reason was given for her departure, but the group’s sales were then at half mast.

The group has since undertaken all-out restructuring.

Its sales fell 6% in the first quarter (February-April) of its staggered fiscal year to $3.28 billion from the beginning of February to the end of April, but its net loss was reduced to 18 million (loss of 162 million a year earlier).