While Phil Knight is heavily associated with the University of Oregon, the Nike Cofounder and Chairman actually graduated from The Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1962. You know the rest: he subsequently transformed an entire industry, sold you generation defining sneakers your whole life, blah blah blah. Knight will be making a homecoming and address Stanford Graduate School of Business students during their 2014 graduation ceremony on Saturday, June 14.
“Phil’s unique ability to see opportunity where others did not, along with his perseverance and willingness to take risks, enabled him to transform an entire industry,” said Garth Saloner, Philip H. Knight Professor and Dean of Stanford GSB.
“Our students seek to follow his example as a change agent after graduation — and Phil has actively supported their ambitions through his ongoing engagement with the school.”
Knight currently serves as chairman of the board of directors of Nike, which he cofounded with track and field coach Bill Bowerman in 1964. Knight originally developed the business plan for the company during an entrepreneurship course he took while in business school.
In a 2009 interview, he said that it was “almost certainly true that if there was no Stanford Graduate School of Business, there would be no Nike.” He also said that “it was out of [that entrepreneurship course] that I really had the courage and the enthusiasm to start this company that ultimately became Nike.”
“Stanford meant a lot to me, and it’s really my hope other students who come to Stanford have as transformative an experience as I did,” said Knight.