Nike just named a new CEO in its latest step as it tries to pivot back to success — and he’s already got decades of experience at the company.
The sneaker maker announced that Elliott Hill will be its next president and CEO on Thursday after the stock market closed. Hill will also be a director on Nike’s board and part of its executive committee. He starts on October 14.
He’ll replace current CEO John Donahoe, who has led Nike since 2020. Donahoe will remain as an advisor to the company through January 31, 2025.
The CEO change comes as Nike is struggling to turn around its business. Since December, the company has been cutting costs, including eliminating some jobs, as it aims to save $2 billion in the next three years. Analysts have said that the company leaned too hard into selling sneakers directly to customers instead of through retailers. The company has also tried with mixed results to expand its lifestyle business, some said.
Hill’s name may already be familiar to Nike-watchers, as he worked at the company before retiring in 2020. Hill had held several roles at the sneaker giant over three decades. The most recent was president, consumer and marketplace, where he led “all commercial and marketing operations for Nike and Jordan Brand,” the company said in its statement.
“Hill is known-and-liked internally and with retail partners, potentially driving an immediate morale boost,” BMO analyst Simeon Siegel wrote in a research note after Nike’s announcement. He added that Hill will drive a return to Nike’s “competitive advantages (focusing on product/marketing) versus recent years’ change.”
Nike shares jumped 10% in postmarket trading on the news.
His rehiring is another sign that Nike is betting on company veterans to turn itself around. In July, Nike hired Tom Peddie, another veteran of the company, to be vice president of marketplace partners.
Donahoe, by contrast, was an outsider to the sneaker business when he joined the company as CEO in 2020.
