Dive Brief:
- Nike is eliminating the chief technology officer and chief commercial officer roles as part of a revamp of its senior leadership team, according to a Tuesday memo to employees from CEO Elliott Hill.
- As a result, CTO Muge Dogan and commercial chief Craig Williams will leave the company. Dogan joined the company in 2023 from Amazon, while Williams had been at the sportswear giant for six years after a tenure at The Coca-Cola Company.
- Chief Supply Chain Officer Venky Alagirisamy, a 20-year Nike veteran, will take on the new role of chief operating officer on Monday and oversee the technology department in addition to his existing responsibilities. Global Sales and Nike Direct now report to Chief Financial Officer Matt Friend.
Dive Insight:
In his latest effort to “remove layers,” Nike chief Hill is eliminating two C-suite roles and elevating four regional leaders to the company’s senior leadership team.
Angela Dong, who leads Nike’s Greater China region, will now report directly to Hill, alongside Carl Grebert (the leader of Europe, the Middle East and Africa), Tom Peddie (who heads up North America) and Cathy Sparks (who runs the Asia Pacific region).
“It’s significant our brand presidents and our geography leaders are sitting together at the same Nike, Inc. leadership table,” Hill said in the memo. “With this newly evolved [senior leadership team], I’m confident we’ll be able to accelerate the core aspects of our Win Now actions. Collectively, these changes amount to us eliminating layers and better positioning Nike to continue to have an impact the way only Nike can.”
Hill thanked Dogan and Williams for their contributions, but said these decisions will help Nike stay closer to its customers. Williams will leave his position Friday, but will remain a full-time non-executive employee through April 6 next year, per an SEC filing. Williams will be retirement eligible, according to that filing.
The elevation of Alagirisamy to operations chief is intended to help integrate technology more seamlessly across the brand’s operations. Placing sales and Nike Direct under financial chief Friend is aimed at aligning corporate strategy and investment with insights from the brand’s direct and wholesale channels.
“[Alagirisamy] and his team will now be able to look end-to-end to ensure technology is fully integrated across the company and into how we create, plan, make, deliver and sell our world-class innovations across our three iconic brands,” Hill said. Alagirisamy will now make a salary of over $1 million and will have a target bonus opportunity of 120%.
Friend has experience across commercial, strategy and geographies from 15 years with the brand, Hill said. “He has partnered closely with me for several years managing our integrated marketplace, and his understanding of our global business will be especially valuable now."
Since Hill’s arrival as CEO just over a year ago, the brand has undergone a series of other personnel changes, including naming a new global sports marketing leader and North America chief last year.
This year, Hill has made even more shifts. Nike in May announced a leadership restructure that saw 26-year veteran Heidi O’Neill retire, while Amy Montagne took on the position of president of the Nike brand. At the same time, the company named a chief growth initiatives officer and a chief innovation, design and product officer.
A month later, Hill said Nike was reorganizing its teams around key sports instead of categories like men’s, women’s and kids. That month, a Nike spokesperson also said Hill’s leadership team was complete after more than 10 notable title changes, retirements and additions. But this latest news represents yet another change to the slate of executives guiding the activewear giant.
Others across the business have left as well. Nike’s vice presidents of both AI and virtual studios left the company this summer. And Nike in September confirmed it would lay off less than 1% of its corporate workforce.
The company in its latest quarter saw revenue grow 1%, with Hill citing “tangible progress” on its turnaround efforts.
