Former Nike CEO John Donahoe will take over as the athletic director at Stanford, where he earned his graduate degree.
His first day on the job will be Sept. 8.
Donahoe, 65, comes to the position with decades of management experience. He was the CEO of Nike from 2020-24 and served on its board of directors beginning in 2014. In previous roles, he was the CEO of ServiceNow, a global software company, of eBay and of Bain & Company, a management consulting firm. He also was the board chair at PayPal from 2015-25.
“Stanford occupies a unique place in the national athletics landscape,” campus president Jon Levin said in a statement. “We needed a distinctive leader — someone with the vision, judgment, and strategic acumen for a new era of college athletics, and with a deep appreciation for Stanford’s model of scholar-athlete excellence. John embodies these characteristics. We’re grateful he has agreed to lead Stanford Athletics through this critical period in college sports.”
Donahoe holds his undergraduate degree in economics from Dartmouth College and his MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.
“My north star for 40 years has been servant leadership, and it is a tremendous honor to be able to come back to serve a university I love and to lead Stanford Athletics through a pivotal and tumultuous time in collegiate sports,” Donahoe said. “Stanford has enormous strengths and enormous potential in a changing environment, including being the model for achieving both academic and athletic excellence at the highest levels.”
Stanford competes in 36 sports. In football, he will work with a Stanford alum, former NFL quarterback Andrew Luck, who is entering his second season as the school’s football general manager.
“He brings unparalleled experience and elite leadership to our athletic department in a time of opportunity and change,” Luck said. “I could not be more excited to partner with and learn from him.”
Nike co-founder Phil Knight, who also earned his MBA at Stanford, endorsed the hire.
“Stanford has made an excellent choice for its new athletic director in John Donahoe. They will not find anyone smarter or with more integrity and dedication,” Knight said.
Donahoe replaces Bernard Muir, who was athletic director for 13 years before stepping down at the end of the 2024-25 academic year.
–Field Level Media
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