Nike CEO John Donahoe reportedly commented on former vice president Ann Hebert’s recent resignation in a meeting Monday with the company’s North America team.
“There’s no value more core to who we are than the trust our consumers put into us and our brand and our products,” Donahoe said, according to Complex, which reviewed a recording of the virtual meeting.
“And the fact of the matter is, this incident has sparked questions in some of our consumers about whether they can trust us, particularly around launch product,” he added.
Nike plans to audit its launch process to make sure customers have confidence in how it releases limited-edition sneakers that have been targeted by bots seeking to beat out online customers.
“We’ve been working on anti-bot technology for the last several years,” the CEO noted, adding, “That is part of the solution, but we need to double down our efforts.”
Hebert stepped down last week after 25 years with the company once reports surfaced alleging she was tied to her son’s resale business.
“Bloomberg Businessweek published an article Thursday about her son, Joe Hebert, who runs West Coast Streetwear, the Insider report said, adding that he allegedly used Hebert’s credit card to purchase more than $100,000 worth of limited-edition shoes to resell,” Breitbart News reported March 2.
During the call Monday, Heidi O’Neill, Nike’s president of consumer and marketplace, said the company’s legal and compliance teams performed an internal review of Hebert’s alleged connection to her son’s business.
“Our internal review of the relationship between Ann and her son’s reseller business confirmed that she had not explicitly violated company policies,” O’Neill explained.
Although Hebert checked in with her previous manager as the resale business grew and intended to follow the company’s policy, she allegedly did not do it enough, the Complex article continued:
“To be clear, we believe that Ann demonstrated poor judgment. However, we made the decision to not take corrective action against Ann,” O’Neill said, describing Nike leadership’s reaction to the internal review. “That decision was based on the information that we had at the time of the review. Following media reports, we had a more complete understanding than what we did when the review was conducted a few months ago and, together with Ann, we decided that it was best for her to resign.”
The company has reportedly named Sarah Mensah, who previously worked as its vice president and general manager of Asia Pacific and Latin America, as Hebert’s successor, according to WWD.com.
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