Sonia Syngal was born in India, but she immigrated to Canada with her parents when she was a small child. After a few years in Canada, the Syngal family headed south to the United States. After graduating high school, Syngal pursued a career in STEM, obtaining a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Flint, Michigan’s Kettering University. After that, she moved to California to work towards a Master’s Degree in Manufacturing Systems Engineering, which she received from Stanford in 1995.
Despite an early interest in fashion born from necessity – she started making her own clothes at 12 years old to fit her tall, slim frame – Syngal’s career began in Michigan in the automotive industry, evaluating line productivity on the midnight shift. Syngal ended up working five different roles at Ford, some of which she refers to as “boiler room jobs,” where she learned to really get her hands dirty.
Once in California, Syngal started working for Sun Microchips, where she stayed for ten years. The call of fashion found her once again, and she accepted a leadership role first at Old Navy, where she helped grow the business from $7 billion to $8 billion in revenue. While CEO of Old Navy, the company was named a Great Place to Work in 2016, 2017, and 2018. That stellar record helped her land the job of CEO at Gap in 2020.
Part of why Syngal’s companies are recognized as great places to work is her strong emphasis on inclusion and diversity. Her leadership team, for instance, is composed of 12 people – 8 of whom are women. “I mean, we want to reflect customers. Our customers are 75% female.” Syngal also makes a point to include people of color on her leadership team. “We reflect the diversity of America and we want to have that empathy and that understanding and that diversity of thought such that we can best service our customers.” Syngal is currently the only South Asian CEO of a Fortune 500 company.