Nike CEO quits over differences with Knight
PORTLAND — When William D. Perez left consumer products company S.C. Johnson to replace Phil Knight as Nike CEO a little more than a year ago, industry watchers wondered whether an outsider would be able to fit into the culture of the world’s largest athletic shoe maker.
The answer came Monday when Nike announced that Perez had resigned over differences with Knight — who has remained as Nike chairman and wields considerable influence at the company he helped establish. Perez was replaced by longtime Nike insider Mark Parker, co-president of the Nike brand. The changes prompted some investors to sell.
“Basically the distance between the company that Bill managed in the packaged goods business and Nike and the kind of new athletic equipment business was too great for him to make that leap,” Knight said during a conference call Monday with industry analysts.
Nike has always sought the spotlight when it comes to its products and celebrity athlete endorsers. But the company has typically kept quiet about any inner turmoil within the executive ranks “inside the berm” — the phrase used to describe the tight-knit corporate community at the headquarters campus in Beaverton, surrounded by an earthen berm topped by a running path.
Knight, however, was candid about what he called a “painful” decision to recommend that Nike’s board accept Perez’s resignation last Friday after Knight told him “that he was not the right person to lead the company.”
Knight said he felt Nike was “operating at 80 percent efficiency” under Perez.
“Personally, I think the failure to really kind of get his arms around this company and this industry led to confusion on behalf of the management team,” Knight said. “And I didn’t see that getting any better.”
Knight noted that Nike has been generating record sales and earnings the past year, but “I thought we can and will be so much better under Mark Parker’s leadership.”
Parker, who joined Nike 27 years ago as a product designer, said no changes were planned.
“Nike has always been more than a job for me,” Parker said. “Like many Nike employees, I have a deep connection to the brand and our company.”
The key, Parker said, will be sticking to the growth strategy the company has been following for the past 12 months.
Parker, 50, joined Nike in 1979 and is considered the visionary behind the Nike Air franchise and many other innovations, and one of the key executives leading long-term strategic planning
In a statement released Monday, Perez said he and Knight “weren’t entirely aligned on some aspects of how to best lead the company’s long-term growth. It became obvious to me that the long-term interests of the company would be best served by my resignation.”
Efforts to reach Perez for further comment Monday were unsuccessful.