Nike Taps Veteran Leadership for Jordan’s European Strategy

Nike strengthens Jordan in Europe. The sports giant has appointed Santiago Arredondo as new vice president and general manager of Jordan in Emea (Europe, Middle East and Africa). A brand, Jordan, which is shown as one of the heavyweights to meet the strategy of CEO Elliott Hill, who aims to recover the essence of Nike and return to the beginnings.

Arredondo himself has announced his appointment on his social networks. With a career of more than 16 uninterrupted years at Nike, he joined the multinational in 2009 and, since then, has held various positions, some of them of responsibility. The director previously worked at the company, in 2005, although only for nine months.

Arredondo began his adventure at Jordan in 2017 as sales director of southern Emea. He held the position for three years, before rising to senior director of Jordan in the territory, a responsibility he held for almost five years.

Arredondo joined Nike in 2009 and has been with Jordan since 2017, serving as southern European sales director and senior territory director

This year, Nike has reconfigured its management structure to get out of the slump it has been going through since 2023. Thus, Heidi O’Neill, until May the company’s president of consumer, with an extensive career that began in 1998, left the company. Amy Montagne took over as president of the Nike brand.

Phil McCartney, until a few months ago in the footwear area, became head of innovation, design and product. Nicole Graham took over as marketing director for Nike, Jordan and Converse. In addition, Tom Clarke, from the innovation area, was appointed head of group growth.

Nike is going through a downturn. The U.S. company, which at the end of last year launched a crash plan after closing 2023 with the lowest growth in a decade, closed its last fiscal year with a 44% plunge in net income and a 10% drop in sales.

Net income at the end of 2024 (ended last May) stood at $3.21 billion, compared to the 5.7 billion dollars it earned in 2023. Gross income, meanwhile, fell by 14% in 2024 as a whole, to $19.79 billion.