Phil Knight Net Worth: The Rise of The Personality – Check out Now
Knight, Philip Hampson, is a multi-billionaire American businessman who was born on February 24, 1938, in Washington, D.C.
When Nike was founded in 1964, he was one of its co-founders and served as its CEO and Chairman Emeritus. Laika, a stop-motion film production firm, is owned by him.
Earliest Years
As the son of a lawyer turned newspaper publisher and his wife, Phil Hampson Knight was born in Portland, Oregon. Originally from Eastmoreland, Knight attended Cleveland High School in Portland, where he grew up.
The now-defunct Oregon Journal refused to hire Knight for a summer internship because “his father believed that his son should find work on his own,” and so the young man “went to the rival Oregonian, where he worked the morning shift tabulating sports scores and every morning ran home the full seven miles,” as stated by one source.
At the University of Oregon in Eugene, where he was a Phi Gamma Delta fraternity graduate brother, a sports reporter for the Oregon Daily Emerald, and a three-year business school graduate (B.B.A. ), Knight pursued his higher education one more time.
He also obtained his Army Reserve Commission and was a “Distinguished Military Graduate” during this time period.
He ran the mile in 4 minutes, 13 seconds as a collegiate middle-distance runner at Oregon, earning varsity letters in 1957, 1958, and 1959. Athletics West was the name given by Knight, Bowerman, and Geoff Hollister in 1977 to the first American track and field team.
Career
A year of active duty in the United States Army followed Knight’s graduation from the University of Oregon, followed by seven years in the Army Reserves.
After his military service ended, Knight enrolled at the Standard Graduate School of Business, where he earned a master’s degree in business administration in 1962 and continued his career as an entrepreneur.
After that, he embarked on a graduation trip to Japan, where he discovered the Tiger brand of running shoes made by Onitsuka Co. in Kobe during a visit to the Japanese city. Mr.
Onitsuka and Mr. Onitsuka had a meeting set up after Mr. Onitsuka was impressed with the quality of the shoes and their affordable price. With this, Tiger’s Western US distribution rights were established.
His first CPA job was with Coopers & Lybrand, then with Price Waterhouse while waiting for the first shipment of Tiger samples to be sent to Portland, which took more than a year. In addition, he was a Portland State University accounting lecturer (PSU).
A pair of Tiger running shoes arrived in the mail, and he immediately sent one to his old University of Oregon track coach Bill Bowerman for evaluation.
Not only did Bowerman place an order for the shoes, but he also suggested to Knight that the two of them work together in the future as partners in business. That’s how the company that would become Nike, Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS), was started on January 25, 1964.
A green Plymouth Valiant, Knight began selling the Tiger shoes at regional track events in the Pacific Northwest from the trunk of his car. Blue Ribbon Sports paid him well enough in 1969 that he was able to leave his profession as an accountant and devote himself full-time to the company.
Jeff Johnson, the company’s first employee, came up with the idea of renaming the company Nike after the Greek goddess of triumph, Nike. In 1971, they paid graphic design student Carolyn Davidson $35 to create their now-iconic “swoosh” emblem.
An unspecified quantity of Nike stock was then handed to her as compensation. From a small start-up shoe company to one of the world’s most recognizable companies, Nike was built by Knight over the course of four decades.
When Nike CEO Phil Knight announced he was stepping down in November of that year, he remained on the company’s board as chairman. By the end of 2016, Knight had officially retired from Nike’s board after announcing his intention to stand down as chairman in June 2015.
Additionally, Knight had a hand in the establishment of Laika, a successful animation studio. In the late 1990s, Will Vinton Studios, an animation firm, was looking for outside investors because of its rapid expansion. In 1998, Knight bought a 15% share in the company, and his son Travis became an animator for the company.
When Knight bought Will Vinton Studios, he changed the company’s name to “Laika” in 2003. “Coraline” was Laika’s first feature-length picture, a stop-motion animation (2009). Laika’s CEO and president, Travis Knight, has since been elevated.
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Value of The Net
At $57 billion in 2022, Phil Knight ranks as one of the world’s wealthiest persons. An American billionaire entrepreneur, Philip Hampson Knight, is named after him.
He’s given hundreds of millions of dollars to each of his schools, including Oregon Health & Science University. The three institutions have received a total of almost $2 billion in gifts from him.
What Is Going on In My Personal Life
While Working at Portland State University, Knight Met Penelope “penny” Parks, the Love of His Life, and The Two Were Married on September 13th, 1968. They Live in La Quinta, California, and Own a Property There.
During the 2018 Oregon Gubernatorial Election, Knight Donated $3.5 Million to Republican Knute Buehler.
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A Scuba Diving Accident Killed Knight’s Son, Matthew, Back in 2004. the Laika Animation Studio Is Led by Travis Knight, Another of Knight’s Sons. Phil Knight Is the Chairman of The Board.
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