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John Donahoe

John Donahoe
Donahoe in 2019
Biographical details
Born (1960-04-30) April 30, 1960 (age 65)
Evanston, Illinois, US
Alma materDartmouth College (BA)
Stanford University (MBA)

John Joseph Donahoe II (born April 30, 1960)[1] is an American businessman who was the CEO of Nike from January 2020 to October 2024.[2] Early in his career, he worked for Bain & Company, becoming the firm's president and CEO in 1999.[3] He is on the board of directors at The Bridgespan Group[4] and is chairman of PayPal. Donahoe was named president and CEO of ServiceNow, a cloud company, in February 2017.[5][6] He was on the Board of Trustees of Dartmouth College from 2003 to 2012.[7]

In July 2025, he was named athletic director at Stanford University, effective September 8.[8][9]

Early life

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John Donahoe was born in Evanston, Illinois on April 30, 1960.[10] His father was an accountant at Price Waterhouse in Chicago.[11] In 1978, he graduated from New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois.[11] He earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Dartmouth College, where he was a brother of Chi Gamma Epsilon fraternity (formerly Kappa Sigma), followed by an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.[12] Donahoe is of Irish descent.[13]

Career

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See also: Bain & Company, eBay, PayPal, and ServiceNow

After Donahoe's senior year of high school, a friend's father asked him to work at his Schlitz beer distribution company. "You'll make good money," he said. It was a union job and the first requirement was that he join the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.[14]

Before joining eBay, Donahoe worked for Bain & Company (a global consulting firm based in Boston) for 20 years, starting as an associate consultant and rising to become the firm's president and CEO in 1999.[3]

In March 2005, Donahoe was hired as president of eBay Marketplaces. His role was to focus on eBay's core business, which accounts for a large percentage of the company's revenues. In 2008, Donahoe was appointed CEO of eBay. He made more than 40 acquisitions, including Shopping.com and StubHub,[15] and the classifieds sites Gumtree and LoQUo, and most recently, Shutl.[16][17] After Donahoe's departure from eBay in 2015, he was replaced by eBay Marketplaces president Devin Wenig.[18]

In February 2017, Donahoe was announced as the president and CEO of ServiceNow, a software company that he became familiar with while working at eBay.[5]

Donahoe was on the Board of Trustees of Dartmouth College from 2003 to 2012.[7] In October 2019, he was announced as the next CEO of Nike, and succeeded Mark Parker on January 13, 2020.[19] Despite tumbling stock prices, with record losses, in 2024, Donahoe made the decision to cut 15% of all Nike employees in Oregon, all while his salary and bonuses remained in the top 0.1% of the top 1% of all CEOs in the United States. [citation needed]

Donahoe was chairman of The Business Council.[20]

Donahoe was announced to be leaving as Nike's CEO in September 2024, being replaced by longtime Nike employee Elliott Hill. Donahoe's last day as CEO was October 12, but continued as an advisor until January 2025.[2]

Compensation

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In 2023, Donahoe received total compensation from Nike of $32.8 million.[21]

Political donations

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Donahoe has donated to Democrats and Republicans. He contributed to Republican Congressman David Dreier of California, as well as two Democratic Senate candidates, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Barbara Boxer of California.[22][23][24]

Personal life

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He is married to Eileen Donahoe (née Chamberlain), former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland.[25] They have four children; three sons and a daughter, and live in Portola Valley, California.[26][27]

References

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  1. ^ "cdn.businessweek.com". Archived from the original on July 13, 2013. Retrieved June 9, 2013.
  2. ^ a b Fonrouge, Gabrielle; Golden, Jessica (September 19, 2024). "Nike CEO John Donahoe is out, replaced by Elliott Hill". CNBC. Retrieved September 19, 2024.
  3. ^ a b "Leadership - eBay Inc". Archived from the original on March 30, 2013. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
  4. ^ "Cheryl L. Dorsey and John Donahoe Join The Bridgespan Group Board of Trustees". Bridgespan. Archived from the original on June 16, 2019. Retrieved June 15, 2019.
  5. ^ a b Balakrishnan, Anita (February 27, 2017). "Former eBay boss John Donahoe named CEO of cloud company ServiceNow". CNBC. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
  6. ^ "Former eBay CEO John Donahue Has A New Job". Fortune. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
  7. ^ a b "Trustees Emeriti". Dartmouth College. Retrieved May 26, 2017.
  8. ^ Andres, Patrick (July 31, 2025). "Stanford Hires Former Nike CEO As Next Athletic Director". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved July 31, 2025.
  9. ^ "John Donahoe Named Jaquish & Kenninger Director of Athletics". Stanford Athletics. July 31, 2025. Retrieved August 1, 2025.
  10. ^ "John Donahoe". Irish America. April 27, 2012. Retrieved November 3, 2014.
  11. ^ a b "Tech drives eBay growth". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on November 3, 2014. Retrieved November 3, 2014.
  12. ^ "John J. Donahoe II". Businessweek. Archived from the original on December 28, 2012. Retrieved November 3, 2014.
  13. ^ "A fifth-generation Irish-American, John is very interested in his Irish ancestry". Irish America. June 2, 2008. Retrieved March 25, 2017.
  14. ^ "linkedin.com". Archived from the original on November 8, 2013. Retrieved November 7, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  15. ^ Stone, Brad (February 21, 2007). "Stirring Up the Cubicles at eBay". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 5, 2017.
  16. ^ "John Donahoe | Irish America". irishamerica.com. December 22, 2011. Retrieved April 5, 2017.
  17. ^ Eldon, Eric; Tsotsis, Alexia (March 26, 2013). "John Donahoe, eBay President And CEO, To Take The Disrupt NY Stage". TechCrunch. Retrieved April 5, 2017.
  18. ^ Mac, Ryan. "EBay Reveals $23 Million Golden Parachute For CEO John Donahoe In PayPal Split". Forbes. Retrieved April 5, 2017.
  19. ^ Turner, Nick (October 22, 2019). "Nike Taps EBay Veteran John Donahoe to Succeed Parker as CEO". Bloomberg LP. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  20. ^ "Leadership in Crises: Insights from Nike's CEO". Northwest Executive Education. June 20, 2024. Retrieved June 24, 2024.
  21. ^ Sainato, Michael (August 29, 2024). "CEOs with lowest-paid US workers 'focused on own short-term windfall' – report". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on August 30, 2024. Retrieved August 31, 2024.
  22. ^ John Donahoe's Federal Campaign Contribution Report Archived 2012-09-22 at the Wayback Machine. Newsmeat.com. Retrieved on 2013-08-24.
  23. ^ "Donor Lookup". OpenSecrets.
  24. ^ "Donor Lookup". OpenSecrets.
  25. ^ "Dartmouth News' announcement of Dr. Donahoe's appointment of U.S. Ambassador to UNHR Archived 2012-04-03 at the Wayback Machine", The Dartmouth, 13 November 2009.
  26. ^ Donahoe, Eileen; Donahoe, John (July 15, 2013). "We Leaned Into Our Marriage". Lean In.
  27. ^ Sellers, Patricia (January 26, 2011). "EBay CEO Donahoe bares his own work-life struggles". CNN Money. Archived from the original on April 25, 2014.
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to John Donahoe.
Business positions
Preceded by President and CEO of eBay
March 31, 2008 – July 19, 2015 		Succeeded by
Preceded by CEO of Nike
January 13, 2020 – October 12, 2024 		Succeeded by