Levi's appoints first chief digital officer

By

Benjamin Fitzgerald

Published
Jan 20, 2023

Levi Strauss & Co. announced Thursday the appointment of Jason Gowans to the role of senior vice president and chief digital officer, effective February 6.

In this new role within the company, Gowans will be focused on bringing together LS&Co.’s engineering, data, AI and digital product management to lead digital efforts both for e-commerce and the digital go-to-market. He will report to Michelle Gass, president, LS&Co., and will sit on the executive leadership team.

Gowans joins Levi's from Nordstrom, where he spent the past 10 years in a variety of marketing, data science and digital roles, serving most recently as senior vice president of digital commerce.

Before that, he was senior vice president of data science and analytics, leading data science and analytics for the company across all functional areas, including marketing, digital, merchandising and supply chain.

The appointment of Gowans comes one year after Levi's announced plans to continue to grow the business, with digital being a main component.

The San Francisco-based company said the appointment of a chief digital officer is key to managing the company’s primary growth drivers, including DTC revenue increases coming from productivity, service, loyalty and e-commerce acceleration.

“Jason is a seasoned leader with a proven track record and expertise in creating digital experiences that delight consumers, and I have no doubt that he will help us accelerate our strategies to digitally transform the company and be direct-to-consumer (DTC) first,” said Chip Bergh, president and chief executive officer at Levi Strauss & Co.

“Jason’s deep knowledge of data science, combined with his strong digital expertise, will help us digitally transform all parts of our business — from supply chain to marketing to ecommerce — and accelerate our growth.”