Stanford hires former Nike and eBay CEO as new athletic director

By JOSH DUBOW STANFORD Calif AP Former Nike CEO John Donahoe has been hired as athletic director at Stanford Donahoe will become the school s eighth athletic director and replace Bernard Muir who stepped down this year He will officially begin in the role Sept Stanford occupies a unique place in the national athletics landscape school president Jon Levin mentioned in a declaration We needed a distinctive leader someone with the vision judgment and strategic acumen for a new era of college athletics and with a deep appreciation for Stanford s model of scholar-athlete excellence John embodies these characteristics ESPN first disclosed the move Donahoe graduated from Stanford Business School and was CEO at Nike from - Donahoe also served as the CEO of ServiceNow a global platform company and as CEO of eBay He served as chair of the board at PayPal from - and he worked for Bain Company for nearly years including as the firm s worldwide CEO Stanford has enormous strengths and enormous likely in a changing ecosystem including being the model for achieving both academic and athletic excellence at the highest levels he revealed I can t wait to work in partnership with the Stanford club to build momentum for Stanford Athletics and ensure the best realizable experiences for our student-athletes Donahoe takes over one of the country s greater part achieving athletic programs Stanford has won at least one NCAA title in straight years starting in - and a record NCAA club titles overall But the Cardinal struggled in the high-profile sports of football and men s basketball under Muir s tenure leading to the decision to hire former Stanford and NFL star Andrew Luck to oversee the football venture as its general manager The Cardinal are looking to rebound in football after going to three Rose Bowls under former coach David Shaw in Muir s first four years as AD Shaw resigned in following a second straight - season and Muir s new hire Troy Taylor posted back-to-back - seasons before being fired in March following a statement that he had been investigated twice for allegedly mistreating staffers Related Articles Cal s Justin Wilcox says Bears have to get better on first day of fall camp San Jose State football Four things to watch as training camp begins Former Stanford football coach Troy Taylor sues ESPN months after firing Deion Sanders had bladder cancer Here s what to know about a illness that s more common in men Latvia s Arturs Medveds Ethiopia s Atsede Tesema storm to Wharf to Wharf titles in Santa Cruz Luck hired former NFL coach Frank Reich as interim coach The men s basketball scheme hasn t made the NCAA Tournament since Muir s second season in - under former coach Johnny Dawkins Dawkins was fired in and replaced by Jerod Haase who failed to make the tournament once in eight years Muir hired Kyle Smith last March to take over and the Cardinal went - for their majority of wins in years Muir also hired Kate Paye as women s basketball coach last year after Hall of Famer Tara VanDerveer retired The Cardinal went - this past season and missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time since Muir also oversaw the Cardinal s transition to the ACC this past year after the school s long-term home the Pac- broke apart