Accomplished Chinese American

Jenny Ming 

Occupation: Old Navy, Gap Inc., President 
Year of Birth: 1955 
Place of Birth: Macau 
Year came to US: 1965 
Education: BA Home Economics, San Jose State University, 1978 

	Jenny Ming, President of the Old Navy chain, has been the key force behind its explosive growth since it was launched in 1994. Currently, Old Navy is one of the county's fastest-growing retailer. On December 1999, Jenny Ming was featured on the cover of Business week when she was named one of its Top 25 Managers of the Year. 

	A first generation Chinese immigrant, Ming came from "a humble beginning." At age ten, she emigrated from Macau to San Francisco's North beach neighborhood.  Her father was a printer, her mother, a homemaker. The middle child of five, she took weekend jobs as a bank teller and sales clerk at Macy's. But her favorite job was working as a seamstress. She would run ads in a local paper, and take orders to work from home. 

	Ming follow her passion for fashion at San Jose State University, she majored in home economics yet took mostly courses in textiles. After college, she went to work for Dayton Hudson Corp.'s Marvyn's unit, first as a management trainee and later as a buyer in linens and junior wear. 

	In 1986, Ming was recruited by Gap, Inc. Chief Executive Drexler as a buyer. Upon joining Gap, Ming initiated many changes which produced dramatic results. One of her early moves was taking Gap's T-shirt business and boosting sales by increasing the color assortment from six to a couple of dozen and marketing them all year instead of just in the summer. Three years later, she was promoted to a Gap vice-president.  

	Ming was placed to head Old Navy and became one of the four top executives there since its 1994 launch. She has an uncanny vision for predicting which hip-looking clothes of the moment will appeal to the masses, then making big bets on producing the huge quantities needed to assure the chain a continual string of hits.  Ming's knack for spotting and promoting hot trends has the retail chain on an expansion gear. Old Navy achieved $1 billion in annual sales in less than four years of operation in 1997. In October 1999, Old Navy opened its largest flagship store in San Francisco. Thousands of shoppers showed up for the opening day. In November, 1999 Old Navy stores hit 500. Less than six years after opening its first store, Old Navy opened its 500th store in Lima, Ohio. Each year for at least the next few years, Ming plans to open more than 100 of its instantly recognizable stores . Old Navy's parent company Gap, Inc. doesn't normally break out sales at its three units, which include the Banana Republic chain as well as Gap Stores themselves. But Old Navy, with just 16% of the company's total stores, account for around 30% of the overall sales of $11.6 billion in 1999. Gap expects Old Navy's sales to surpass those at the Gap chain in just a few years.