Kat Thomsen

Kat Thomsen excels at breaking barriers, thanks to her (single) mom, Captain Foxy Roxie Thomsen, who blazed the way as a Naval engineer in the 1970s. With a strategist’s mind and a storyteller’s heart, Kat sees the grander vision, but also herds the cats, solves the problems, gets it done, and makes sure everyone has fun doing it. Before landing a role as Creative Director of Editorial and Social at Old Navy, she built a successful career in publishing, and will soon leave Old Navy for a new role at Sephora, where she’ll manage a department almost exclusively made up of women. 

“My most important role and responsibility at any job is to build up the women I work with, and who work under me,” she said. “It’s important to me to represent power and success to younger women in a way that doesn’t feel either stereotypical or girl-boss toxic positivity. I have always been a “girl’s girl,” and while I believe gender is a construct and gender norms are bullshit, I am proud to be a role model for success without abandoning my own femininity, and to model the power of empathetic leadership in spaces that can feel cutthroat and competitive.”

Kat relocated to San Francisco from New York City, where her past life included playing bass in Your Ex-Girlfriends, an all-girl, all-blonde honky tonk band she founded with some of her best girlfriends (who are talented musicians as well as successful professional women). She’s an avid motorcycle rider and the San Francisco chapter founder of the Miss-Fires, an all-women/womxn motorcycle and car club that gives all levels of female riders a safe space and experience, as well as a champagne drinker and lover of pomeranians (especially her own, Peaches).

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