Phil Knight

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This article is about Nike Founder Phil Knight. See Phil Knight (musician) for information on the guitarist for New Zealand band Shihad.

Image:Phil Knight.jpgPhilip H. Knight (born February 24, 1938) is the co-founder and former CEO of Nike, Inc. and the majority shareholder in Will Vinton Studios, which was renamed Laika Entertainment House in 2005. Knight is also known for his monetary support of the University of Oregon, where he received his bachelor's degree in accounting in 1959. Knight received his MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1962.

Knight's 35% stake in Nike, Inc., has a recent net worth of US$7.4 billion which makes him the 22nd richest American.

Knight stepped down as the company's CEO and President on December 28, 2004, while retaining the position of chairman of the board. He was replaced by William Perez, former CEO of S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc.

Knight was named a "Corporate Crook" in Michael Moore's novel Downsize This!. The novel cited the harsh conditions in Indonesian sweatshops, where pregnant women and girls as young as fourteen years old sewed shoes for the company. Moore went to Knight in the hopes of convincing him to fix this problem. That interview can be seen in Moore's film The Big One.

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