Fashion
Nike’s vice president of footwear Greg Thompson will be the fourth executive to leave the sneaker giant in a week, joining a growing chorus of other vice presidents that have taken their leave recently amid a corporate culture shake-up.
Thompson, who has been with the company for decades, follows VP of diversity and inclusion Antoine Andrews out the door, as well as longtime employees VP of global digital brand marketing innovation Daniel Tawiah and senior brand director for Nike Basketball Vikrant Singh.
Only last month Nike announced the departure of two other senior executives, brand president Trevor Edwards and general manager of global categories Jayme Martin, in two consecutive days.
Martin’s departure came after a report in the Wall Street Journal alleged that he had been involved in inappropriate conduct.
It comes amid an investigation into workplace conduct at Nike under chief executive Mark Parker and the implementation of a new human resources strategy designed to better promote diversity.
Earlier this month Nike’s human resources chief Monique Matheson issued a company memo conceding that the company had “failed” in promoting and hiring women and minorities to senior level positions within the company.
“While we’ve spoken about this many times, and tried different ways to achieve change, we have failed to gain traction,” the memo read.
“Our hiring and promotion decisions are not changing senior-level representation as quickly as we have wanted.
Currently only 29 per cent of Nike’s vice presidents are women while in the US only 16 per cent are people of colour.
Nike will now renew its efforts to address this disparity with immediate effect, Matheson said.
Nike has more than 70,000 employees worldwide and several hundred vice presidents.
