Nike Global Marketing Director Steven Boyd speaks at his alma mater, Radford University.

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As the global marketing director of Nike, Boyd is responsible for equipment product marketing focused on running, basketball and athletic training. He is a native of Floyd County, where his parents still live. Boyd received a marketing degree from RU and then earned a master's degree from Old Dominion University. 

Boyd first spoke at 11 a.m. And while the talk was free and open to the public, the attendees were mostly business and marketing students from RU.

The presentation began with a video about Nike to the tune of U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name.” And then Boyd launched into a presentation about the history of the company, saying business students learn from history.

Boyd told the tales of the legends of Nike’s founding including Phil Knight, Bill Bowerman, and Jeff Johnson, offering tidbits of trivia such as Knight’s initial desire to name the company Dimension Six and how graphic designer Carolyn Davidson, for $35, came up with a “fat checkmark” to be the company’s logo.

Boyd offered insight as to the path the company took to become a global brand and explained decisions the company made

RU graduate Steven Boyd presents the Nike story on Friday.

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Boyd showed classic Nike commercials including the “I Love L.A.” ad with singer Randy Newman for the 1984 Olympics, the “Revolution” ad featuring The Beatles song of the same name, and the “Bo Knows” ad starring two-star athlete Bo Jackson and musician Bo Diddley.

The session ended with another Nike video, this one to the tune of “All These Things I’ve Done,” by The Killers.

At 2 p.m., Boyd lead a career-planning seminar offering details of his journey from RU to Nike. Audience members were able to ask questions of Boyd at both sessions, including one RU student asking Boyd about his salary. “I make a living,” he replied.

The event was hosted by RU's College of Business and Economics and the RU chapters of Phi Beta Lambda and the American Marketing Association.

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