• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises

2

Despite having a $165 million net worth, Scarlett Johansson says work-life balance doesn’t exist—and the first step to success is admitting that

3

Nearly 50,000 Lake Tahoe residents have to find a new power source after their energy source looks to redirect lines to data centers

1

The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises

2

Despite having a $165 million net worth, Scarlett Johansson says work-life balance doesn’t exist—and the first step to success is admitting that

3

Nearly 50,000 Lake Tahoe residents have to find a new power source after their energy source looks to redirect lines to data centers
NewslettersMPW Daily

To turn Levi Strauss into a $10 billion business, CEO Michelle Gass is looking to women

By
Emma Hinchliffe
Emma Hinchliffe
and
Nina Ajemian
Nina Ajemian
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Emma Hinchliffe
Emma Hinchliffe
and
Nina Ajemian
Nina Ajemian
Down Arrow Button Icon
February 25, 2025, 8:57 AM ET
Michelle Gass at Fortune's MPW Summit in California
Michelle Gass, president and CEO of Levi Strauss & Co., talks Beyoncé.Kristy Walker/Fortune

Good morning! Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes’s conviction is upheld, TIAA president and CEO Thasunda Brown Duckett talks retirement insecurity, and women are key to growth at Levi Strauss.

– A ‘denim lifestyle.’ CEO Michelle Gass is months into her new strategy at Levi Strauss—but don’t call it a turnaround. “It’s not a turnaround, we have an incredibly strong foundation,” she tells my colleague Phil Wahba in his new feature story for Fortune.

Recommended Video

Gass became CEO of Levi Strauss just over a year ago after a much-lauded handoff from her predecessor, Chip Bergh. Bergh is known for revitalizing the Levi’s brand, while Gass, the former CEO of Kohl’s, was tapped to turn it into a major retailer in its own right, not just a brand sold in others’ stores.

A key piece of that strategy? Women’s clothes. For most of its 172-year history, jeans for men were Levi’s “bread and butter,” Phil writes. In 2018, women accounted for 29% of Levi’s sales; now that stat is up to 36% and Gass has her eye on reaching 50%. To grow Levi’s from its current $6.4 billion business, Gass wants to tap women, who shop more often than men do. “We should be at least a $10 billion company,” Gass says. “That’s going to come through a few ways, but women’s [clothing] is going to be a key means to do that.”

Michelle Gass at Fortune's MPW Summit in California
Michelle Gass, president and CEO of Levi Strauss & Co., talks Beyoncé.
Kristy Walker/Fortune

Levi’s is expanding its assortment to include more tops, which shoppers also refresh more often than they do jeans. Levi’s very recently used to sell seven bottoms for every top; now that stat is two bottoms for each top sold. Its focus is still denim—but that includes clothes that pair well with denim, from western-inspired trends to Beyoncé and her hit “Levii’s Jeans.”

“We’re no longer just selling jeans, we’re selling a denim lifestyle,” Gass says often. Read Phil’s full story here.

Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com

The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Today’s edition was curated by Nina Ajemian. Subscribe here.

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

- Bad blood. A U.S. court denied Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes’s plea to overturn her conviction. Holmes is currently serving an 11-year sentence, convicted on four counts of defrauding investors in her defunct blood-testing tech company. Wall Street Journal

- Big insecurity. President and CEO of financial services and insurance provider TIAA Thasunda Brown Duckett thinks America needs to fix its retirement insecurity problem. One way to remedy this is making sure all Americans have access to annuities, as “income is the outcome.” New York Times

- Network shakeup. MSNBC president Rebecca Kutler is making changes to network programming. Joy Reid’s evening show The ReidOut has been cancelled and will be replaced with The Weekend cohosts. Also, former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki is taking a weekday primetime slot for Inside with Jen Psaki. CNN

- Do what you love. A new report from BCG shares findings from conversations with around a dozen female CFOs. A top finding—they love what they do. Fortune

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

American Express Global Business Travel named Alisa Copeman CMO. Previously, she was SVP of global marketing for the group.

Earnest, a fintech company for students, named Emily Childers CMO. She was most recently head of growth marketing at Credit Karma.

Impossible Foods, a plant-based meat brand, named Meredith Madden chief demand officer. She was most recently CEO of The Kraft Heinz Not Company.

Law firm Gibson Dunn appointed Mellissa Campbell Duru as a partner in its securities regulation and corporate governance practice group. Most recently, she served as deputy director of the division of corporation finance, legal regulatory policy for the SEC.

Medical Group Management Association appointed Julia Rosen as SVP of IT. Most recently, Rosen was chief information officer of Pera Healthcare.

ON MY RADAR

The rise of artificial intelligence at JPMorgan Wall Street Journal

For Mikaela Shiffrin, 100 World Cup wins and a female-led team guiding the way The Athletic

The flirt behind Chicken Shop Date New Yorker

PARTING WORDS

“It also taught me a lot about power, because as young women on that show, we didn’t have any. Now, I look for opportunities to create more equitable power in any room.”

— Sophia Bush, actor and general partner at venture capital firm Union Heritage, on what she learned from One Tree Hill

This is the web version of MPW Daily, a daily newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Sign up to get it delivered free to your inbox.
About the Authors
Emma Hinchliffe
By Emma HinchliffeMost Powerful Women Editor
LinkedIn iconTwitter icon

Emma Hinchliffe is Fortune’s Most Powerful Women editor, overseeing editorial for the longstanding franchise. As a senior writer at Fortune, Emma has covered women in business and gender-lens news across business, politics, and culture. She is the lead author of the Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter (formerly the Broadsheet), Fortune’s daily missive for and about the women leading the business world.

See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
By Nina AjemianNewsletter Curation Fellow

Nina Ajemian is the newsletter curation fellow at Fortune and works on the Term Sheet and MPW Daily newsletters.

See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Newsletters

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Newsletters

Jenn Hyman reflects on the highs and lows of running Rent the Runway for almost two decades
NewslettersMPW Daily
Jenn Hyman reflects on the highs and lows of running Rent the Runway for almost two decades
By Emma HinchliffeMay 15, 2026
1 hour ago
Andrew Feldman, co-founder of Cerebras
NewslettersTerm Sheet
Cerebras soars almost 70% by market close in a true blockbuster IPO
By Allie GarfinkleMay 15, 2026
4 hours ago
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (left) and Apple CEO Tim Cook in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 4, 2025. (Photo: Will Oliver/EPA/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
NewslettersFortune Tech
OpenAI may take legal action against Apple over Siri’s ChatGPT integration
By Andrew NuscaMay 15, 2026
6 hours ago
State Farm CEO is betting big on AI—and contemplating the company’s future in California
NewslettersCEO Daily
State Farm CEO is betting big on AI—and contemplating the company’s future in California
By Diane BradyMay 15, 2026
6 hours ago
The AI boom sidelined sustainability. Two researchers want to change that
NewslettersEye on AI
The AI boom sidelined sustainability. Two researchers want to change that
By Sharon GoldmanMay 14, 2026
24 hours ago
‘Be delusional enough to call yourself something the world hasn’t called you yet’: What powerful women told the class of 2026
NewslettersMPW Daily
‘Be delusional enough to call yourself something the world hasn’t called you yet’: What powerful women told the class of 2026
By Sydney LakeMay 14, 2026
1 day ago

Most Popular

The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises
Politics
The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises
By Jake AngeloMay 12, 2026
3 days ago
Despite having a $165 million net worth, Scarlett Johansson says work-life balance doesn’t exist—and the first step to success is admitting that
Success
Despite having a $165 million net worth, Scarlett Johansson says work-life balance doesn’t exist—and the first step to success is admitting that
By Preston ForeMay 13, 2026
2 days ago
Nearly 50,000 Lake Tahoe residents have to find a new power source after their energy source looks to redirect lines to data centers
Travel & Leisure
Nearly 50,000 Lake Tahoe residents have to find a new power source after their energy source looks to redirect lines to data centers
By Catherina GioinoMay 12, 2026
3 days ago
The airplane fuel shortage is a myth propagated by airlines who want to cancel unprofitable flights, says private jet CEO
Energy
The airplane fuel shortage is a myth propagated by airlines who want to cancel unprofitable flights, says private jet CEO
By Jim EdwardsMay 14, 2026
1 day ago
Current price of oil as of May 14, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of May 14, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerMay 14, 2026
1 day ago
Steve Jobs used a 'beer test' for interviews at Apple—if he didn’t want to drink with you, you didn’t get the job
Success
Steve Jobs used a 'beer test' for interviews at Apple—if he didn’t want to drink with you, you didn’t get the job
By Orianna Rosa RoyleMay 14, 2026
1 day ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.