The 62-year-old was finally kicking up his feet and enjoying the fruits of his labor after working for 32 years. Longing for home, Hill decided to move back to Austin. It was there he launched his own company, a junior-league baseball team, and got around to his favorite pastimes like skiing and biking with his wife—whom he connected with during his first week working at Nike.  

But still, something felt missing. 

“There was a moment when I started to think to myself, ‘Is this really what the rest of my life is going to be like?” Hill told Fortune in an exclusive interview. 

It perhaps explains why he kept his fingers in Nike’s pie by keeping up with his former colleagues at the retail giant. And whether it be fate or a stroke of luck, it resulted in him being yanked out of retirement.

“I had stayed in touch with people at Nike at all levels of the organization,” Hill said. “And then I get the phone call. And here we are. And my whole world becomes turned upside down. It’s been a crazy 75 days.”

How Elliott Hill went from badgering a Nike exec for an internship to leading the company

Hill has been enamored with Nike since college. Before embarking on a 30-year stint at Nike, the big dream started when Hill was getting his master’s from Ohio University. He simply took a sports marketing class and fell in love with Nike. Luckily for him, Tim Joyce, a Nike executive at the time, came to speak at the university, and Hill bothered him for six months for an opportunity. The nagging worked—and at the start of June 1988, Hill joined Nike as an intern.

In his early years, Hill rapidly climbed Nike’s corporate ladder. He began as a salesman, driving his minivan across the country to sell shoes to retailers. But he never stayed put in a role for more than four years; after working as a team sports division director, VP of EMEA sales and retail, and later the VP of global retail, he eventually landed his final role. From 2018 to 2020, Hill was the president of Nike’s consumer and marketplace before retiring. But that wasn’t the end. 

Hill wasn’t working his desk job at Nike, but he still maintained an active career. He founded an organization called Open Road Resources, worked as a senior advisor at a merchant bank, and served as a board member for several companies. But at the end of the day, he missed being a part of the Nike action. 

“I had a great second chapter [in my] business career. I was doing a number of investments and projects that inspired [me], motivated me, kept me busy,” he said in the interview. “But I have to admit there were those moments when I would walk away from a board meeting, where your responsibility is to steer, guide, suggest, provide thoughts, perspectives, and then you leave. You don’t have the responsibility for continuing the execution.’”

Nike shares surged immediately after Hill’s role was announced 

Hill has only been CEO of the sports giant for a few months, succeeding John Donahue, who led the $107 billion company from 2020 to 2024. During the pandemic, Donahue had navigated Nike through the rough and uncertain waters of lockdown. Consumers could no longer visit the physical stores, so he pivoted the company strategy to e-commerce and a direct-to-consumer approach. 

And for a time, it worked—Nike share prices hit a historic high of $177.51 in November 2021. But in the coming years, Donahue would have a fall from grace. Lockdown restrictions began to roll back, and those strategies now backfired. Nike lost market share and strained relationships with their retail partners. While Donahue briefly had a successful run, he didn’t have the sneakerhead wherewithal to revive the brand; he lacked retail experience, and had no knowledge of footwear fashion culture. 

Then, Donahue stepped down in October 2024. 

Nike needed a Hail Mary—an executive who could breathe life back into the iconic sports brand that was fast falling out of favor with consumers. Luckily, the business had a seasoned leader in its back pocket to tap into the role.

Nike’s share prices surged more than 6% the day after Hill was announced as the company’s new chief executive.

Hill says that the first thing on his agenda is re-engaging with the team he’s been away from for the past four years. On his first day, he held an all-employee meeting and gave his two cents on running the business during a fireside chat for the company’s workers.