Elliott Hill

Elliott Hill is the President and CEO of Nike, Inc., the world's largest sportswear and athletic footwear company, with annual revenue exceeding $50 billion. Hill was appointed CEO in October 2024, returning from retirement to replace John Donahoe, whose tenure was marked by an aggressive direct-to-consumer pivot that alienated wholesale partners and eroded Nike's market position in key categories. Hill's Nike career spanned 32 years before his retirement in 2020. He held senior roles across virtually every commercial function — from regional sales management to President of Consumer and Marketplace, overseeing Nike's entire global commercial operation. His deep institutional knowledge, relationships with retail partners, and understanding of Nike's athlete-driven culture made him the board's choice to lead a turnaround. Nike under Donahoe had prioritized digital direct-to-consumer sales and lifestyle products at the expense of wholesale distribution and performance innovation. This strategy backfired: Nike lost shelf space at Foot Locker and other key retailers, competitor brands like New Balance, On, and Hoka gained market share in running and lifestyle, and Nike's product pipeline was criticized for being derivative. The stock had fallen roughly 30% from its highs by the time of Hill's appointment. Hill's mandate is to return Nike to its roots as an athlete-first innovation company while rebuilding the wholesale partner ecosystem. His early moves have included reorganizing around sport categories rather than channels, reinvesting in performance product innovation, repairing relationships with key retail partners, and restoring the aspirational brand positioning that made Nike culturally dominant for decades. The turnaround is expected to take multiple years, making Hill one of the most watched new CEOs in consumer retail.