Phil Knight

This article is about Nike Founder Phil Knight. See Phil Knight (musician) for information on the guitarist for New Zealand band Shihad.

Philip H. Knight (born February 24, 1938) is the co-founder and former CEO of Nike, Inc. and the owner of Laika Entertainment House (formerly Will Vinton Studios). Knight is also known for his monetary support of the University of Oregon, where he received his bachelor's degree in accounting in 1959. Knight received his MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1962. In 2006, Phil Knight donated $105 million to Stanford GSB - at the time by far the largest donation to a business school in history.

Knight was an Eastmoreland kid who loved to run. He went from Cleveland High School to University of Oregon, where he found himself on a team with three Olympic distance runners.[1]

While at the University of Oregon, Knight participated in track under legendary coach Bill Bowerman. Knight was a letter winner in 1957, 1958, and 1959.

Knight's 35% stake in Nike, Inc., has a recent net worth of $7.9 billion (US), which makes him the 30th richest American.[2]

Knight stepped down as the company's CEO and President on December 28, 2004, while retaining the position of chairman of the board. He was replaced by William Perez, former CEO of S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc., who was in turn replaced by Mark Parker in 2006.

Knight was named a "Corporate Crook" in Michael Moore's book Downsize This! in 1997. The book cited the harsh conditions in Indonesian sweatshops, where pregnant women and girls as young as fourteen years old sewed shoes for factories that the company contracted to make its products. Moore went to Knight in the hopes of convincing him to fix this problem. That interview can be seen in Moore's film The Big One – of the nearly 20 CEOs that Moore tried to interview for his movie, only Knight agreed to speak with Moore.

Knight informed Moore that Nike does not own any of the factories that make its products. Knight told Moore if he was willing to invest in and build a factory in the US that could match the quality and price of footwear made overseas, Nike would consider buying shoes from him.

Knight pledged in 1998 to impose more stringent standards for the factories that Nike hires to make its goods, including minimum age standards, factory monitoring and greater external access to Nike's practices.

External links

• Knight to Leave Nike Top Job - Wikinews
• Forbes.com: Forbes World's Richest People
• Nike founder is Ducks' spiritual godfather - The Seattle Times, 31-Oct-2006, by Bud Withers

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