Nike founder Phil Knight recently made an appearance on CBS This Morning to speak about the company's growth and recent firings of executives amid harassment and discrimination allegations.
According to reports, in an internal survey Nike employees have detailed a toxic workplace ripe with instances of verbal and emotional abuse toward women, including a boss who allegedly threw his car keys at a female employee while calling her a "stupid bitch" and another incident in which a current employee says she was forcibly kissed in a bathroom by a supervisor.
As a result of the New York Times' report in March, as many as 14 senior-level employees have left the company, including Trevor Edwards, president of the Nike brand, and Jayne Martin, Edwards’s lieutenant, who oversaw much of Nike’s global business.
Phil Knight described the reports of workplace misconduct as shocking during today's appearance on CBS.
"Overall, how Nike’s doing is we’re doing fine, sales and earnings are growing," Knight said. "But we did have a shock within the last couple of months that a certain number of managers were bullying employees, and it was a shock to me personally and to a lot of the upper management. And it’s disappointing, as well as a shock, it’s very disappointing, but I am proud of the company in the way it responded to the problems that it saw, and it’s basically cleaning house for those people."
Check out his full interview below.
