Willie Gregory’s office at Nike is home to several golf clubs and baseball bats. Some are for practical use, while others are mementos from various fundraising events. Look around a bit and you’ll see more sporting paraphernalia, including basketball and football gear. But the implements aren’t all for show; Gregory can play each of those sports. And considering his balancing act between positions at Nike and the Greater Memphis Chamber, his multitalented approach could be a major boon to the City of Memphis.
A Memphis native, Gregory came to Nike from IBM in 1993. After almost three decades of service with one of America’s largest sporting apparel businesses under his belt, Gregory now splits time between his roles for Nike and the Chamber. “I’d say I spend about 40 percent of my day dealing with the Chamber,” says Gregory. “The other 60 percent is my daytime job to pay the bills with Nike.”
“If we get the talent, we’ll get the companies. If the companies come, so grows the Chamber. If the Chamber grows, so grows the city and the opportunities that we’ll have for our young people coming up.”
Juggling two positions is a familiar exercise as he had already been serving as vice chairman at the Chamber before FedEx’s Richard Smith reached the end of his term in 2019. Even with such a hefty workload, he always makes time to get in a workout at one of Nike’s on-site exercise facilities, whether it’s lifting weights, a spin class, or just shooting hoops.
Looking ahead to 2020 and beyond, “collaboration” is the key word for Gregory’s strategy as chairman. “First and foremost, I’d like to collaborate with the corporations and companies who are our clients at the Chamber to get talent. I certainly believe if we get the talent, we’ll get the companies. If the companies come, so grows the Chamber. If the Chamber grows, so grows the city and the opportunities that we’ll have for our young people coming up.”
The Chamber, along with the Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC) and the Economic Development Growth Engine (EDGE) for Memphis and Shelby County, recently released their shared economic goals for 2020. They include 68 development projects, $1.1 billion in capital investment, $109 million in Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (MWBE) spending, and the creation of 3,800 jobs. Those goals reflect Gregory’s optimism for Memphis. “If you look around, you can judge the success for a lot of cities by the number of cranes that are in the city,” he says. “The number of cranes and buildings here have increased and will increase going forward, because the Chamber is doing a great job of attracting businesses to Memphis.”
When examining Gregory’s history with Nike, it’s hard to argue with those numbers. FedEx is what initially drew Nike to setting up shop here in 1982, and the latter’s continued collaboration with the Chamber resulted in the corporation becoming the largest occupier of supply chain space in Memphis. In addition to the original Nike Distribution Center on Lamar., a few years ago the Portland, Oregon-based company opened a 2.8-million-square-foot North American Logistics Campus in Frayser – its biggest worldwide distribution center, which created thousands of jobs.
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Photo Collage: During almost three decades at Nike, Gregory has rubbed shoulders with many notable athletes and public figures. The framed collage is just one of many sets of framed photographs dotting his office that track his time in the sports world.
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Win As A Team Poster: The Nike poster, featuring three stars from the Seleção (Brazilian Men’s National Soccer Team), hangs just outside Gregory’s office. He has adopted “Win As A Team” as his personal mantra, which ties in perfectly with his effort to “collaborate” as chairman.
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Oscar Robertson Basketball: When Nike first made plans to build in Memphis, former NBA player Oscar Robertson visited the site with his construction company and signed a ball for Gregory.
The new distribution center was remarkable not just for the sheer scale, but for the fact that a large corporation set up shop in an area that other businesses had been hesitant to enter. While Downtown is seeing a huge development boom, it’s important that other sectors of the city aren’t neglected. “That’s something that I’m asking all companies to do: Make an investment in these areas of Memphis,” Gregory says. “It’s proven to be good for us so far. And you can see that another huge company, Amazon, set up shop in the Raleigh-Frayser area as well.”
With collaboration at the forefront of his strategy, it’s not surprising that Gregory is quick to give credit to others who have helped lift Memphis. “The late Phil Trenary started a great movement,” he says. “Beverly Robertson has picked it up. The chairman that I replaced, Richard Smith, has done and is still doing a tremendous job in putting Memphis in the forefront of opportunities for companies to come and invest in our city.”
Memphis government officials’ and large company representatives’ willingness to work together is crucial for both short- and long-term growth. “It’s a three-pronged approach,” says Gregory. “It’s educational, it’s corporate, and it’s government, to put everything in motion so that we can accommodate the companies that are going to come here.”
