Phil Knight
Philip Hampson " Phil" Knight ( born February 24, 1938 in Portland, Oregon) is an American entrepreneur and founder and CEO (CEO) of the U.S. group Nike Inc..
The graduate economists already designed in his university thesis, the successful marketing concept of his later company. With its help, Phil Knight made since the mid 1960s the Nike Group one of the world's most important and successful manufacturer of sports equipment. He became better known in 1997, when Michael Moore interviewed him for his film The Big Macher ( The Big One). Moore represents him in the uncomfortable question of why he can make shoes in Indonesia, where a repressive regime prevails.
Biography
Professional career
Philip Hampson Knight was born in 1938 as son of William W. Knight and Lota Hatfield in Portland. After school, Knight took a degree in economics at the University of Oregon, from which he graduated in 1959 with a Bachelor of Business Administration. From 1959 to 1960 Knight served as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army.
Subsequent studies at Stanford University in California ended in 1964 as a Knight Master of Business Administration. The written this thesis dealt with the problem of how the German Adidas and Puma dominance in the U.S. sporting goods market had to break. Knight pleaded already on this occasion for an inexpensive, but high quality competitive tenders should reach through an intensive marketing strategy walk.
After graduation, Knight was until 1969 worked as an accountant in Portland, where he has also been appointed to teaching at the State University. In 1968 he married Penelope Parks, with whom he has two children and a foster daughter.
Career as Nike CEO
Knight founded in 1964 with Bill Bowerman, the shoe company Blue Ribbon Sports, which made successful sales and in 1971 renamed Nike Inc.. The colorful range of sports shoes provided the company with a rapid global expansion. After the IPO 1980 Nike achieved high price increases. At the beginning of the 1990s gained Knights companies in terms of turnover achieved the worldwide leading position in the industry.
Background of entrepreneurial success of Knight is the marketing strategy already described in his thesis, draws attention to itself again and again through the Nike about by the equipment of professional athletes. The prominent athletes serve the predominantly adolescent and young clientele as role models.
Knight led since 1967 as president and CEO, the company itself, the opposite of the Adidas competition suffered revenue losses from the mid- 1990s.
On December 28, 2005 Phil Knight stepped down as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) back surprising. But he continues to receive the Board of Directors as Chairman. He was replaced by William Perez, who previously served as CEO of the detergent company SC Johnson & Son.
Memberships and Awards
The contractor belongs to the Republican Party. He was voted in Oregon in 1982 most successful entrepreneurs of the year. In 1994 and 2003 he was honored with the Cannes Lions as Advertiser of the Year. In 2012, Phil Knight was taken for his services to the sport in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.