Phil Knight - Later Years

Later Years

When Knight resigned as the company's CEO November 18, 2004, and retained the position of chairman of the board, he was replaced by William Perez, former CEO of S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc. Perez was in turn replaced by Mark Parker in 2006.

In 2002, Knight purchased Will Vinton (Animation) Studios, where son Travis worked as an animator, and changed the name to LAIKA. Travis was named to the Laika board of directors later that year and became CEO of LAIKA in March 2009, replacing Nike former-employee Dale Wahl. Laika released its first feature film Coraline (in stop motion) in February 2009.

In 2009-2010, Knight was the largest single contributor to the campaign to defeat Oregon Ballot Measures 66 and 67, which, once passed, increased income tax on some corporations and on high-income individuals.

As of February 13, 2012, the Knight Foundation, of which Phil and Penny Knight both are directors, held 841,145 shares of Nike Class B Common Stock.

On February 24, 2012, Knight was announced as a 2012 inductee of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor. The Hall recognized him as the driving force behind Nike's huge financial support for the sport and its players. Knight was formally inducted on September 7.

On May 18, 2012, Knight contributed $65,000 to a higher education PAC formed by Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle. According to Boyle, the PAC will help facilitate an increase in autonomy at the schools in the Oregon University System.