Nike’s new CEO was an intern at the brand in 1988. He’s now in charge of saving one of the biggest sports apparel legacies in the world.

But that may be a double-edged sword, too. Cappelli added that there may “be a reluctance to change in ways that hurt people still there, especially former mentors.”

Jim Duffy, a Nike analyst for Stifel Institutional, told BI’s Lloyd Lee that Hill’s return as a Nike insider may well bring about a “revitalization of the Nike culture.”

“I also expect you’re going to see kind of a renaissance in the innovation and product development process,” Duffy added.

Not many CEOs can say that they’ve worked their way up from interns to the top job in a company. Xerox’s former CEO, Ursula Burns, was one of them.

She started working at Xerox in 1980 as a mechanical engineering summer intern while completing a master’s degree at Columbia University.

Burns worked her way up from positions in product development and planning to executive assistant and vice president. She was named CEO in July 2009.

Nike representatives did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside business hours.