Maria Eitel

Brainstormer, Business leader, Change agent, Designer, Explorer, Global soul, Idea generator, Inventor, Single, World traveler

NIKE, Inc. has long been regarded for its leadership strength and business savvy, demonstrating the interdependence of value and values. As Nike Foundation’s founding CEO, Maria Eitel, is no exception – often lauded for her ability to create business opportunity and competitive differentiation. She has been described as a visionary and innovative thinker, a charismatic communicator, and a catalyst for progressive business models… accelerating progress and profits while fostering positive relationships inside and outside the company. Eitel’s career has taken her from public affairs and community engagement to business innovation and global impact. She is known for applying non-traditional thinking and know-how in leading enterprise-critical initiatives to transform organizational behavior and brand perception in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America. She offers deep knowledge and experience derived from her work with some of the world’s biggest brands – Microsoft, NIKE, and the White House – with an understanding of the interplay and nuance of business, politics and social change. Under her leadership the Nike Foundation created and sponsors The Girl Effect initiative – a powerful expression of business strategy, brand and values – that tackles world poverty at its greatest point of leverage, the adolescent girl. The World Bank estimates billions in economic and humanitarian gains from this growing and sustainable global movement. Eitel was a television reporter and producer before joining the White House as special assistant to the President for media affairs. After nearly four years there, she moved to MCI to manage communications and public relations, and then to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as director of public affairs. Next she was asked to lead corporate affairs for Microsoft’s European operations as it transitioned to a European headquarters function based in Paris, France where she was part of the team managing that company’s response to the European Commission Microsoft Antitrust Case and became fluent in French. In 1998 she joined NIKE, Inc. and led the turnaround of the company’s reputation during a global “sweatshop crisis,” reshaping public opinion and internal business practices to become known as an industry leader in corporate responsibility. Eitel oversees the corporation’s community engagement portfolio across all geographies, functions and employees and a combined annual budgets over $118 million. Most recently, she was tapped for her thought leadership as advisor in developing NIKE’s “Store of the Future.” Maria Eitel is the Chair of the Girl Effect. She has also held a variety of board and advisory positions including the SAFECO Corporation, the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Eastern Congo Initiative. With expertise in consumer markets, girl’s and women’s issues, communications, public affairs, community and labor relations, philanthropy and marketing, she is a recognized speaker at national and global forums including Google Zeitgeist, the World Economic Forum and the Clinton Global Initiative. She has been featured on the cover of Fast Company for their “League of Extraordinary Women” edition. After earning her Master of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and Bachelor of Arts from Quebec’s McGill University, she graduated from the Stanford Graduate School of Business Executive Program. Eitel also holds an Honorary Doctorate of Humanity from Babson College and is a Visiting Fellow of Practice at the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University.