Nike's next CEO Hill brings a bootstraps mentality
Elliott Hill to become Nike CEO, succeeding John Donahoe
Hill's deep Nike roots contrast with Donahoe's external CEO background
Analysts expect Hill to reinvigorate Nike amid innovation and culture challenges
By Nicholas P. Brown
Sept 19 (Reuters) -Elliott Hill started at Nike NKE.N as an intern in 1988 but steadily scaled its ranks, banking on values of grit and hard work ingrained in him as the son of a single mom in a working class Texas neighborhood.
Those qualities may be useful again when Hill becomes the global sneaker and sportswear brand's top boss next month, helping revive the company where he has spent his whole career.
Nike announced on Thursday Hill will become its next chief executive officer on Oct. 14, replacing the retiring John Donahoe.
Its sales have faltered in recent months, as nimbler, more innovative brands such as On ONON.N and Deckers' DECK.N Hoka have gained market share. Nike is in the midst of what it says will be a three-year endeavor to cut $2 billion in costs.
Where Donahoe was an outsider - brought in in 2020 after CEO stints at eBay EBAY.O, Bain Capital and the cloud company ServiceNow NOW.N - Hill is Nike to the bone. He joined it out of graduate school at Ohio University in 1988, lobbying a company rep who had spoken at his sports marketing class.
"I bothered him for six months until he finally hired me," Hill said on the FORTitude podcast in December. "I told him ‘everybody in my class has a job except me.’"
His blue-collar bona fides go back even further than that. Born in Austin in 1963, Hill's father left the family when he was three. His mother set an "unbelievable example in terms of commitment and work ethic," he told the podcast. Sports, he added, became a key piece of his childhood.
At Nike, he held stints in sales, including in the Dallas office. "I did 60,000 miles a year, two years in a row, in an old Chrysler minivan," he said, describing his early years selling shoes to mom-and-pop retailers.
After myriad other roles - including directing Nike's team sports division, and serving as its vice president of global retail - Hill became President of Consumer & Marketplace in 2018. He retired in 2020.
Hill recalls a time when Nike epitomized innovation. He was in the room when the company unveiled its iconic "Just do it" ad in 1988. Employees watching the internal presentation erupted in cheers, he said on FORTitude, a podcast featuring people like Hill who lived and worked in Dallas-Fort Worth. "If you can inspire people inside of your company, you know you're going to inspire people outside the company," he said.
Hill did not respond to a Reuters email seeking comment. But Nike said Hill was well-regarded internally, and believes his hire will be popular with employees.
MICHAEL JORDAN'S SHOE
The Texas Christian University graduate helped lead Nike's Dream Crazy campaign, narrated by NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, in 2018. He also built relationships with key athletes, including Michael Jordan.
When Hill wanted to take the Jordan brand global, the basketball star was nervous about the move, and said he was going to leave one of his size-13 shoes on Hill's desk. "I want you to think about that shoe, and if our revenue goes back, I'm going to come and stuff that up your rear," Hill remembered Jordan saying.
Hill laughed while describing the moment on the podcast. "It was mainly said in jest," he said, "but you know I got the point that he believed in us and was going to take a risk."
Hill and his wife, Gina, created a scholarship at Central Catholic High School in Portland, Oregon, where the couple's children attended school. Hill raised money for the scholarship by auctioning the sports memorabilia collection he had accumulated in three decades at Nike.
Laundry - a Portland clothing store that sells mostly vintage sports team apparel - partnered with Hill on the 2022 auction, its owner Chris Yen told Reuters on Thursday.
Yen had no idea who Hill was when he received a cold call from him. Hill told Yen he had learned of the store through his son, and wanted to work with him. The auction raised $2.1 million between memorabilia sales and private donations, Yen said.
“Elliott is the best possible person for the job and to help get Nike back to winning again," he said.
Wall Street analysts hope Hill can bring excitement back to the Nike brand.
"Product innovation at the company is still lacking," said Brian Nagel, an analyst at Oppenheimer, adding that "management has been loath" to restore partnerships with key retailers.
Jessica Ramirez, an analyst with Jane Hali and Associates, put it bluntly: At Nike, she said, "the culture has fallen apart."
Reporting by Nicholas P. Brown. Additional reporting by Juveria Tabassum in Bengaluru; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman
免责声明: XM Group仅提供在线交易平台的执行服务和访问权限，并允许个人查看和/或使用网站或网站所提供的内容，但无意进行任何更改或扩展，也不会更改或扩展其服务和访问权限。所有访问和使用权限，将受下列条款与条例约束：(i) 条款与条例；(ii) 风险提示；以及(iii) 完整免责声明。请注意，网站所提供的所有讯息，仅限一般资讯用途。此外，XM所有在线交易平台的内容并不构成，也不能被用于任何未经授权的金融市场交易邀约和/或邀请。金融市场交易对于您的投资资本含有重大风险。
所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。
本网站上由XM和第三方供应商所提供的所有内容，包括意见、新闻、研究、分析、价格、其他资讯和第三方网站链接，皆保持不变，并作为一般市场评论所提供，而非投资性建议。所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为适用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。请确保您已阅读并完全理解，XM非独立投资研究提示和风险提示相关资讯，更多详情请点击 这里。
