Get rid of the CTO? Just Do It, says Nike

Nike has eliminated its Chief Technology Officer role and put a newly appointed Chief Operating Officer in charge of technology transformation.

Venkatesh Alagirisamy, previously Nike’s Chief Supply Chain Officer, takes on the COO role with a mandate to “look end-to-end to ensure technology is fully integrated across the company,” CEO Elliott Hill said on a Q2 call. 

New Nike COO Alagirisamy will report directly to Hill, while Nike CTO and former Amazon executive Dr Muge Erdogan is due to leave the company after just two years in the role. 

Speaking on a Q2 call on Thursday, Hill – who is leading a major shakeup at the struggling sports retailer – said that Nike sees “significant opportunity to get our core operations running more efficiently and more profitably.”

(The Stack has noted a growing trend for the COO to take on a more prominent technology leadership role: For example, British banks Lloyds Banking Group and Nationwide both have a COO with deep technology experience leading digital transformation, in lieu of a Group CIO.)