Phil Knight The Story of The Businessman Who Created Nike Book Preview: Philip Hampson "Phil" Knight (born February 24, 1938) is an American mogul and benefactor. A local resident of Oregon, he is the co-founder and chairman emeritus of Nike, Inc., and formerly served as chairman and CEO of the business. In November 2015, Forbes called Knight the 15th wealthiest individual in the world, with a projected net worth of US$ 28.1 billion. A graduate of the University of Oregon and Stanford Graduate School of Business (Stanford GSB), he has actually contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to both schools; Knight provided the biggest contribution in history at the time to Stanford's school in 2006. He ran track under coach Bowerman at the University of Oregon, with whom he would co-found Nike.