Nike CEO apologizes for company's 'boys club culture'

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World leading sneaker giant Nike's CEO Mark Parker Thursday apologized to employees at an all-staff meeting for a "boys club culture," reported The Wall Street Journal.

Parker called the rare meeting at Nike's Oregon campus in the US, a few weeks after six Nike executives and senior managers were forced to leave amid reports of misconduct by male employees against female workers.

In March, a group of women at the company complained to Parker that their informal survey revealed a corporate "boys-club culture" was permeating at the company where female employees were given unequal pay and suffered inappropriate sexist behavior from their male colleagues, which failed to be taken seriously by its management.

The Micheal Jordan Buliding at the Nike headquarters. /VCG Photo

Parker told his employees that he wanted "everyone to know that I'm personally committed to making Nike a place where everyone can thrive in an environment of respect, empathy, and equal opportunity for all."

The upheaval at the company has forced Nike's head of human resources and other senior executives to leave.

As a remedial gesture of balance, Nike has promoted two women to senior leadership positions in recent days to underpin what Parker called the value of "equal opportunity for all."

Nike's new human resources chief Monique Matheson said in an internal email in April that nearly a third of the sportswear company's vice presidents are women.

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency