Crew Pipes a New CEO on Board

J.Crew Group Inc. (New York) announced that industry veteran Ken Pilot has been appointed ceo, effective Sept. 9, 2002. The appointment ends a four-month search for the replacement of Mark Sarvary, who left the company in May.

Pilot joins J.Crew from Gap Inc. (San Francisco), where he spent 13 years, most recently as president of Gap International, a $1.6 billion operation with more than 650 stores in five countries. Prior to that, he was president of Gap Brand Worldwide, where he was responsible for merchandising and field operations in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Japan and Canada. He had also been dmm for The Gap and for Banana Republic, and senior vp of Gap Outlet. He began his career at Macy's Department Store (New York) in 1984.

J. Crew has been in the midst of troubled waters. Its sales slipped 6 percent in 2001 and it had a net loss of $11 million. When Sarvary resigned, he was blamed for his lack of retail merchandising experience. He had joined Crew in 1998 from the Nestle Co.

“We're very happy to have a true specialty apparel retailer as our new ceo,” the Crew board of directors said in a released statement. “Ken brings years of big brand successes as an operator, in addition to his history with Macy's and Gap as a merchant. He has all the right qualifications to take the company to the next level.”