Stanford Appoints Former Nike CEO John Donahoe as Athletic Director Amid Major Sports Overhaul
Key Highlights:
Stanford MBA John Donahoe, who was the previous CEO of Nike, will be the new Athletic Director from September 2025.
He will succeed Bernard Muir and will lead Stanford Athletics through a time of transition, including ACC integration and revenue redesigns.
Key Background:
The hiring of John Donahoe is a watershed event for Stanford Athletics. As opposed to traditionally athletic director recruits from administration or coaching backgrounds, Donahoe brings a decidedly corporate viewpoint. Holding an MBA from Stanford, with executive-level experience in multinational corporations like Nike, eBay, and ServiceNow, he represents a new breed of athletic leadership—a leadership style that can address the money, the law, and the operations problems playing out on college campuses.
Stanford moved from a wish to have someone who can balance strategic vision and deep institutional values. Donahoe is close to the university; he earned his MBA in the mid-1980s, served on the Stanford Graduate School of Business advisory board, and has been engaged on campus. This rich history, along with his business background, prepared him best to lead the athletic department when higher education and athletics are more interdependent than ever before.
While Stanford is still dominant in Olympic and non-revenue sports—winning 137 NCAA team championships and at least one championship annually for nearly half a century—it is facing increased pressure to revive its sports dynasties. The football team has experienced subpar seasons in the past few years, which led to radical leadership turnover. Adding Frank Reich as an assistant coach and Andrew Luck to oversee football operations is one aspect of a broader reshuffling intended to get the program back to competitive levels.
The men's basketball has not been so successful, failing to qualify for the NCAA Tournament for over ten years. However, there was reason for optimism with new head coach Kyle Smith taking the squad to 21 victories and demonstrating a corner was about to be turned.
Stanford addition to the Atlantic Coast Conference adds a new dimension of complexity. When the Pac-12 dissolved, Stanford needed a secure and competitive market, and the ACC offered the potential for this. This realignment demands leadership in establishing new scheduling, travel, revenue sharing, and recruitment dynamics—all of which will be places where Donahoe's strategic management experience will be worth its weight in gold.
In addition to that, the new NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness), student-athlete revenue sharing, and general commercialization of NCAA sports place historically unprecedented burdens on athletic directors. Stanford's choice is vision-defining—one that attracts someone capable of weighing innovation and tradition, fiscal prudence and student well-being. Donahoe's experience as a leader and value-driven decision-maker could serve as an example for the future of university athletics.
About the Author
Mia Jones
Mia Jones is a Managing Editor at Education Excellence Magazine.