The "downsizing Nike promised last summer has finally begun in earnest," according to Jeff Manning of the Portland OREGONIAN. The first layoffs implemented over the summer "hit more than 100 vice presidents." This week's downsizing "involves so called 'S-band' employees, generally the most senior and highest paid workers after the top executives and vice presidents." Rather than making all the cuts at the same time, Nike "seems to be implementing them in phases and by job classification." It appears that under new CEO John Donahoe, the "higher you are on the org chart the quicker you could be shown the door." Nike has "not divulged how many employees will lose their jobs." The company in a notification to the state in August said that the number just in Oregon "will exceed 500" (Portland OREGONIAN, 10/8).
GIVING BACK: In Portland, Matthew Kish reported Nike co-Founder & Chair Emeritus Phil Knight has given $942M "worth of Nike shares to charity" in the form of a "securities filing made Tuesday." The filing "doesn't name the charity, except to say it's an organization for which Knight and wife Penny Knight serve as directors." The Knight Foundation, a private foundation formed in '97, is the "only charity known to fit that description" (BIZJOURNALS.com, 10/7).
