Nike employee goes from intern to CEO in 30 years

Evan Porter
Fri, 04 Oct 2024 06:09:58 +0000
Business, Economy, Inspiration, Nike

Elliott Hill doesn't fit the usual mold of CEO of a multi-billion dollar global corporation.

He wasn't brought in from some fancy consultancy to cut the bottom line and boost profits. On the contrary. He worked his way up from the very bottom.

In this day and age, that's a pretty remarkable feat.

After being announced as the next leader of the storied company, a screenshot of Hill's LinkedIn profile went mega viral.

Why?

Well, just take a look.

Hill has only worked one place — Nike — where he started as a simple intern over 30 years ago. Now he's the CEO.

LinkedIn

Obviously, it was a long journey.

Hill spent two years as an intern, then worked his way up through Sales before becoming a VP. That alone took 10 years of hard work.

A few years later he was a President-level executive, and he continued to work on many different teams and divisions for the global brand, gaining valuable knowledge and experience with many different facets of the company

Hill briefly retired from Nike in 2020 before being recruited to come back this year.

Bringing Hill back on board comes on the heels of the previous President & CEO stepping down from the role.

John Donahoe was a former management consultant and previously served as the CEO of eBay and of a cloud computing company before joining Nike.

He was big on tech, big on cost-cutting, and big on layoffs. But he didn't know much about sneakers, or the Nike brand. The results were disastrous for what as once the biggest sneaker brand on the planet.

So Nike looked at its own homegrown talent to find a replacement, seeking someone who not only got the brand and business, but respected and understood its core customers.

Based on tenure and experience, there weren't many better candidates than Hill!

— (@)

No one would ever accuse Nike of always doing the right thing over the years. But this is one good example that other companies should follow: promoting from within.

It's not a great look to bring in an outsider, hired-gun CEO to the tune of a nearly $30 million pay package, only for that person to ruthlessly slash jobs.

But it seems to be a popular choice for big companies these days: Tap a leader who will blindly optimize for profit and shareholder value and/or strip the company for parts. Capitalism, baby!

Nike the corporation will probably be more-or-less fine either way. It's the passionate sneakerheads and the dedicated employees who get hurt — the people who make the brand what it is.

Sean Lemson, a leadership development coach and author, wrote on LinkedIn:

"It was very hard for me to watch (and be swept up in) the way John and other leaders from Silicon Valley just completely devalued the nike-blooded employees who were let go over the years."

Heather Smit, a marketing and creative operations professional at Nike, was extremely candid in her own post:

"Though I survived and even thrived amidst the 2 massive reorganizations John led, they have left us with bumps, bruises, and even scars. We lost a lot. We’ve been through hell and back in the last 5 years under John’s leadership. We’re still here because we LOVE this company and we know we deserve better. The consumer deserves better. Elliott doesn’t have an easy job ahead of him, but he’s got about 80,000 hopeful and energized employees behind him, ready to go."

It's not often you find yourself rooting for a millionaire CEO, but Elliott Hill's story is just so dang inspiring we might not have a choice.