Each month, we will be featuring one diverse alumnus/alumnae and one diverse current student. Part of the Center for Sports Administration's mission is to encourage and support diversity in the sports industry, and we want to demonstrate that commitment here on the website. This month's Q&A is with Amy Ng '08. The interview was done by Brittany Tyree '15.

• Can you tell me about yourself?

I currently work at Nike right now. I’ve been here for about five and a half years. Actually since I’ve left OU, I’ve been at Nike. Right now, I work in merchandising. It’s actually a bigger group called football, baseball, and athletic training (FBAT for short) and it’s in a merchandising function. I also work with products, sales, reps, development, and designers, so it’s kind of a portion and function of a bigger group. I’ve been in this category/group for two and a half years. Before this work group I was in other groups at Nike such as emerging markets. This group was in a different georgraphy. And then I obviously spent two years at Ohio University getting my MBA/MSA and between those two years I interned at Nike. And background history of me is I grew up in California, bay area girl. I went to Cal Berkeley for my undergraduate and I swam there for four years. While I was there what I got interested in was college athletics so I actually worked in the development office for about 1 ½ years while I went to school. While interning, I learned about stewardships, event planning, scholarship, and every aspect of the develop office.

• What aspects of your career have you found most rewarding and why?

I obviously wanted to go into College Athletics when I went to OU, so when I learned about Nike and interned there, I wanted to figure out how I could combine College and Nike together and that’s literally my job today. I still get the aspect of seeing how Nike products can impact teams on the field. I can still see an impact in how our products impact athletes or student athlete and then I also have the pleasure of bringing it to retail and selling it. So for me personally, I’ve been able to combine my love of college and Nike together.

Also Nike in general, no matter what position you are in you see how many people touch product or help make a product come to life and be available for consumer to buy. And so when your are out in the market place, say if I’m in Dick’s Sporting Goods store and I see a kid looking at a shoe, just knowing I had some part of making that shoe come to life , it’s a really rewarding thing. I worked on it two years before it actually hits the store.

Working at Nike is also very rewarding because the environment is very open to development and how you grow as a person and they want you to change jobs every two years to three years. You can literally be in product and then you might be able to be able to jump to a retail brand presentation job or a merchandising job. So where ever you want to go in and whatever you want to learn, people are very supportive.

• What are your primary responsibilities with your current position?

Current position is NCAA Apparel and License Headwear Category Merchandise Manager. What that means is that as a merchant my only job is to figure out what goes into an account’s door and what fits into the market place. I basically take a product line every season and I assort to three different accounts for football, baseball, and athletic training. I am kind of the middle man between product and sales and I tell my product team- what is the best product and what will be selling, and the most “consumer right”. What fits according to the price point and how premium or basic the product is and then I say here’s the reality. I can fit this product at Dick’s Sporting Goods and I can make champs in the mall look different than Dicks Sporting Goods store. And then I can take this other product you gave me and make the door look a different way. So it’s kind of taking all of the products I get and making each door that I work with look slightly different for the consumer that I know is going to walk into the door.

• What are the most valuable skills in your job?

Communication, passion, knowing how to work with a team, and how to manage up and manage down with people. Part of my job and what I’m working on to get to the next level is I can lead but how do you lead and influence people at the same time. I still think, same as I thought in grad school, I would rather take someone who is passionate about something and had the energy. There’s definitely a Nike energy giver and energy taker and I would much rather take someone who is passionate and has energy and has less experience than someone who has 10 years of experience and but wasn’t super passionate.

• What are some of the defining characteristics of the individuals who have been hired by your company in your department?

In merchandising it’s a little bit of what we call an art and science, that’s what makes a good merchant. And so one of the things Nike is doing a really good job is hiring people from the outside. If you are internal it’s the passion and that you know the Nike process but if you are external some of those characteristics are that you have vertical retail experience. The art side is the storytelling, visual impact and fashion side of things. The science side is digging into the numbers, what is the most productive, how much money are you making per square foot, what is the sell through, what’s been the past history of how things have performed, so really knowing the numbers (profitability, pricing, margins, etc).That science side is something we really have been good at hiring people from the outside. One thing Nike can do that no other company can do is tell stories. Only Nike can make Calvin Johnson come to life in a certain way. So we really look for people who can story tell and bring a vision to life.

• What motivates you to continue in this business?

My business is licensing so it can definitely wear you down. We go non- stop but I’m super passionate about it so that motivates me. You also always want to be better and you always want to get to the next level and I constantly want to learn things. And, what’s really important at Nike is your boss and your manager and having them push you and push you to new limits. How are they challenging you and that is what keeps me motivated. Constantly wanting to be better and wanting to get to the next level. While we work hard, we also play hard. I have really great travel, last week I was at Alabama for the Ole miss game and a couple weeks before that I went to the Ohio State game. And the reward of getting to see is that whether you are on field or get to talk to consumer, you get to continually learn on these trips.

• What special advice would you give a person entering this field?

Being open to learning, communication, over-communicating, bringing your own point of view, being involved, and passion. It’s the basic things. For me, my communication is something people always notice about me. And I really believe my communication style and being able to alter it and understand where my coworkers are coming from has made me really successful.

• Does Nike do a good job at promoting diversity?

Yes, Nike does a great job with diversity. There are several groups on campus including a diversity and inclusion group. Nike has a great mix of people, with a range of backgrounds – it is what allows the company to be so successful and creative.