"This move is about keeping long-term control of Nike," a longtime Nike executive not authorized to speak for the company said in an email. "No better time to announce this as business is booming, Phil is healthy, Travis is willing and Mark is still young." In fact, in many ways, last week's announcements were more about Mark Parker than Phil Knight. Parker, 59, joined Nike as a footwear designer after graduating from Penn State in 1977. Not long after his arrival, Nike executives targeted him as an up-and-comer. The book "Swoosh," published in 1991, described a youthful Parker presenting its Nike Air footsoles to the company board in 1985. "A tall, thin, quiet young man, Parker seemed lacking only in business experience," the book says, adding that Swoosh protagonist Rob Strasser, husband of Swoosh co-author J.B. Strasser, believed, "Parker had potential to run the company one day." Parker's career started at Nike's shoe factory and research and development office in Exeter, New Hampshire.