Nike co-founder Phil Knight to step down as company chairman

Phil Knight, who cofounded Oregonbased sneaker and sports apparel giant Nike Inc. more than 50 years ago, has announced that he plans to step down as company chairman.

“For me, Nike has always been more than just a company it has been my life’s passion,” Knight said in a press release Tuesday on the company’s Web site.

He proposed that Nike’s chief executive officer since 2006, Mark Parker, take his place.

The 77yearold Knight said Parker is the “best choice” to succeed him, adding that in his nine years as CEO he has “demonstrated time and again his love for this company and his clear vision for capturing the tremendous potential Nike has to innovate, inspire and drive growth.”

“I have been privileged to work with Phil for over 35 years, and Nike’s exceptional management team and I are committed to building on Phil’s vision to drive the next era of growth for Nike,” Parker was quoted as saying in the same release.

Knight and his trackandfield coach at the University of Oregon, the late Bill Bowerman, founded the company (originally known as Blue Ribbon Sports) in 1964 with an initial investment of $1,000.

Over the years, Knight became one of the world’s wealthiest individuals and currently ranks No. 35 on Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s billionaires with a net worth estimated at $21.5 billion.

Nike said last week that it posted net income of $3.27 billion and revenues of $30.6 billion in its 2015 fiscal year, which ended on May 31, up 22 percent and 10 percent, respectively, from the 2014 fiscal year.

Shares of the company, a Dow component, were up around 0.8 percent in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange, where they have risen more than 13 percent since the start of 2015.