How the outgoing CEO of Signet Jewelers modernized his e-commerce business and fixed a toxic company culture from the top down.

When Gina Drosos took over as CEO of Signet Jewelers in 2017, she inherited a company with a broken culture, viewed by many as hostile to female employees, and a company in decline. Now, more than seven years later, he is handing over the reins to a company that is stronger on all fronts.

Signet announced Tuesday that Drosos is retiring but will remain in the position until November 4. She will be replaced by JK Symancyk, former CEO of PetSmart.

During seven years of leadership, Drosa Signet overcame several critical challenges. The company has become a much bigger player in the e-commerce industry, with 23% of total sales now digital. Drosos also solved the problem of the company’s two subsidiaries, Kay and Zales, cannibalizing each other’s sales with similar products and locations. Signet is undeniably in a better business position today: annual sales are now about $7.3 billion, about $1 billion more than when Drosos took over as CEO. (Investors like her: shares fell 8% on news of her imminent departure.)

But Drosos’ most significant achievement may have been overhauling the company’s culture. Signet, which also owns Jared, Blue Nile and Rocksbox, made national headlines in 2017 after a press exposé Washington Post Office reported that hundreds of former employees alleged sexual harassment and discrimination against women at a company where men dominated leadership positions.

She said Drosos’ top priority was fixing the culture and making sure women felt they had great career paths Fortune in late 2022. Actively took action to dramatically increase the percentage of women in positions at the vice presidential level and above; at store level, the vast majority of assistant managers and above are women. Drosos also rejected Signet’s old “top-down command and control culture.” In 2022, Signet paid $175 million in a class action settlement.

Drosos’ successor is a man, but she rejects the notion that it would be a surprising choice given her track record of bringing more women into leadership roles.

“In my opinion, it’s not about gender. It’s always about having a team that thinks differently and can see the different corners,” Drosos says of Symancyk in an exclusive interview about her retirement for Fortune. “It is crucial that we continue to create a culture and environment that allows our entire team to be themselves.”

I will finally join the digital age

Drosos oversaw a major and largely successful transformation of Signet’s e-commerce business.

Like most jewelers, including LVMH’s Tiffany, Signet has been slow to adopt online sales, believing that many consumers want to see an item in person before spending big bucks. But the pandemic pushed the company in a direction Drosos was already taking and equipped stores with digital tools that allowed them to interact with customers remotely.

The emphasis on e-commerce led the CEO to buy Rocksblox in 2021, a jewelry rental company that has since become an online retailer, and Blue Nile the following year. But this takeover did not come without pain. “Some things are happening a little slower, and some of the integration difficulties we had with Blue Nile were not entirely expected,” he says.

Drosos and her team are certainly facing a difficult time right now. A weak jewelry market in difficult conditions prompted most of Signet’s middle-income customers to postpone major purchases, and sales growth eluded the company for several quarters. Last month, however, Drosos told investors that comparable sales had returned to previous growth in the current quarter. And despite the lackluster sales, Drosos still sees a path to reaching its long-held goal of $9 billion in sales fairly quickly – a goal it first set in 2021.

He says the long-dormant engagement market is coming back to life, adding that fashion jewelry such as earrings is also making a comeback. It’s also betting that Signet’s growing repair services business will continue to grow, and that its technology advantage in an industry dominated by independent jewelers will help it continue to gain market share.

Drosos will remain an advisor to Signet for several months after his retirement and is looking forward to a less busy schedule. Still, she won’t remain passive: she recently joined the executive committee of the United States Golf Association and believes it has “a great opportunity to become a more inclusive and sustainable sport.”

“I’ll probably play a little more too,” he says of golf. “I look forward to spending time with friends and family and pursuing activities and interests that have been on the back burner so that I can passionately work with the Signet team on all the things we have accomplished,” he says.

This story was originally published on Fortune.com