New York (AFP)

At the helm of Nike sports equipment manufacturer since 2006, Mark Parker will be stepping down as General Manager to be replaced in early 2020 by John Donahoe, a regular at the big tech groups.

Parker will remain executive chairman of the board, a position he held since the departure of co-founder Phil Knight in 2016.

The leader assured in an interview on the news channel CNBC that he would remain very committed and wanted an "easy" transition.

Under his leadership, sales of the Oregon group in the northwestern United States rose sharply to $ 36 billion last year, and shares traded soaring from about $ 10 to $ 95.

He has also pushed Nike to become more actively involved in some social issues, for example, to make American footballer Colin Kaepernick known for launching a protest against police violence against blacks in the United States. kneeling down in the American anthem, the face of one of his advertising campaigns.

Nike, under the reign of Mr. Parker, has not been spared scandals, like the one that led to the departure of several executives of the company in 2018 following testimonials from employees, mostly women, denouncing a "toxic" environment marked by discrimination and moral and sexual harassment.

Mr. Parker himself had recently been splashed by a scandal involving the mark at the comma. The case was linked to the four-year suspension of the star coach in charge of a Nike-funded track and field program, Alberto Salazar, for violating the doping regulations.

According to a report by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), Parker had been copied with e-mails informing him of the progress of the research of the Nike Oregon Project (NOP), a project created in 2001 to revive the elite of the long distance race in the United States.

On CNBC, Parker assured that the board had spent "several months working on the succession schedule" and that his replacement had nothing to do with this latest scandal.

His successor, Donahoe, knows Nike well, and he has been a member of the board of directors since 2014.

He is not a management neophyte since he is currently General Manager of ServiceNow Software Company and Chairman of the Board of PayPal. He was from 2008 to 2015 the boss of eBay and previously that of the consulting firm Bain & Co.

"His expertise in the areas of e-commerce, technology, global strategy and leadership, combined with his strong brand relationships, make him an ideal partner to accelerate our digital transformation and leverage the positive impact "the strategic program launched in 2017," said Parker.

"I'm proud to have been part of Nike's adventure over the last five years through my role on the board, and I'm now looking forward to becoming a full member of the team, to working more closely with Mark, to build on Nike's success and seize the opportunities ahead, "said Donahoe in a statement.

The announcement of this change at the head of the sports giant comes the same day that the departure of the founder of the group Under Armor, Kevin Plank. The latter, who founded the company in 1996, will hand over the reins on 1 January 2020 to Patrik Frisk, the director of operations.

© 2019 AFP