Award Honorees

Greg Hoffman ‘88 has made a career out of creativity. As the former chief marketing officer of Nike, he is recognized worldwide as a brand leader. Hoffman is now the head of his own brand leadership platform, Modern Arena, where he provides advisory services to Fortune 500 brands, startups and nonprofits.

During his time at Minnetonka High School, Hoffman recalls his drawing and painting classes fondly—as well as his time on the soccer and track teams. In fact, he attributes his success at Nike to the collaborative skills he learned from participating in Minnetonka’s sports programs.

“Those teams were something I will never forget,” said Hoffman, “because that’s something that you take into business—your ability to collaborate, your ability to create chemistry as a team and your ability to win as a team and give credit to the entire team.”
Hoffman also credits much of his success to his high school art teacher, Mr. Cunningham. “Mr. Cunningham was someone who absolutely wanted you to master the fundamentals before you started expressing yourself,” he said, “and his class was really where I learned to hone my craft.”

After graduation, Hoffman attended the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, where he earned a degree in graphic design. During his senior year, he was offered two internships—a summer internship with Nike and a year-long internship for the Walker Art Center. Nike was so impressed with Hoffman’s work that he was offered a permanent position in its image design department.

“I didn’t have to choose between my two passions of art and sports because Nike was a place where those were naturally in harmony,” said Hoffman.

In his 27 years at Nike, Greg held pivotal roles in marketing, design and innovation. As Nike’s vice president of global brand innovation, he spearheaded teams dedicated to pioneering the future of storytelling and crafting transformative consumer experiences for the brand. He has led countless successful ad campaigns, including six campaigns for the summer Olympics and six for the World Cup.

Hoffman has been listed on Business Insider’s 50 Most Innovative CMOs, Ad Age’s Power Players list and was named one of the Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company—which credited Hoffman for “keeping Nike in the spotlight.”

Hoffman’s main source of success comes from innovation. He said that, “In the world of marketing, innovation is the rocket fuel that drives great business strategies, great innovation and business. You have to make sure you’re looking out in the world and continuing to learn and find different points of inspiration that you can bring into your work. I call this idea getting outside of yourself.”

To current Minnetonka High School students and recent graduates, Hoffman offers a valuable piece of advice: “Give yourself homework in terms of meeting unique people, going to different places and trying to find the passion that you want to spend the rest of your life working within.”