Dive Brief:
- Sports apparel giant Nike appointed Dan McKenzie as its chief accounting officer, finance operations and transformation and as the company’s principal accounting officer, effective Monday, according to a securities filing.
- McKenzie, 55, retired in July after more than 19 years at the Beaverton, Oregon-based company including more recently serving as CFO, global operations and technology. During the interim period he did not hold any other job, the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission states.
- The appointment is the latest step in the changing of the guard within Nike’s finance team, and comes as newly appointed CFO Dave Denton stops serving as interim corporate controller and principal accounting officer.
Dive Insight:
Nike announced in June that it had landed Denton, who previously served as CFO of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. In taking Nike’s finance reins, Denton received a $7.3 million new hire bonus and outgoing CFO Matthew Friend left the company with a $2 million lump sum transition benefit, CFO Dive previously reported.
The company has brought back other boomerang executives. After serving about 14 years in senior posts at the company, Veteran Elliott Hill left in 2020 only to return in 2024 to take the CEO post and lead its “turnaround strategy amid pressure on margins and fierce competition in the sports apparel market.
In his new role, McKenzie’s compensation will include an annual base salary of $500,000, a target annual bonus of 50% of eligible fiscal year earnings and an annual target long-term incentive award of $525,000. He succeeds Johanna Nielson who resigned in September from her role as CAO and controller, according to a securities filing.
Nike is still facing financial pressures. For its fiscal quarter ended Aug. 31 it reported net income fell 2% to $712 million in the year-earlier period and Nike said last month it expects revenues to decline by the high single digits in fiscal 2027.
In his first earnings call in October, Denton flagged the challenges he faces. He said the company is focused on issues that it can control like improving inventory management, getting a good price on its products and strengthening its supply chain.
“Here's what I've taken away from the last six weeks,” Denton said, according to an earnings call transcript. “We are not at a standing start. Significant and valuable work has already been done to build a better Nike, and we intend to accelerate those efforts over time.”
