Nike Veteran Ashley Reade Appointed New CEO of Rip Curl

Ashley Reade is Rip Curl’s new CEO. He’s from Nike.

Reade spent the past eight years as VP and GM of Nike’s Asia Pacific operations. Now he takes the reins at one of surfing’s most iconic legacy brands. “Transitions are always mixed feelings of excitement and trepidation due to the unknown,” he wrote on LinkedIn—immediately confirming that, yes, this is indeed a corporate transition.

The move follows the October resignation of Brooke Farris, who spent 14 years with Rip Curl and served as CEO for three, resigning her position in October 2024. A former junior champ, ASP Women’s World Tour manager, and board member for SurfAid, Surfing Australia, and The Beachley Foundation, Farris was a rare example of a surf exec with both hard-earned water chops and boardroom fluency.

When she took the corner office at 101 Surfcoast Highway, the second woman in history to achieve such a feat, surf writer Nick Carroll aptly wrote: “It’s hard to avoid the idea that it signifies a hell of a lot.”

Under Farris, Rip Curl doubled down on the core—headlining the once-sidelined Eddie Aikau Invitational—and made a headline-grabbing play by re-signing Steph Gilmore on an eight-year $4MM deal. That deal, reportedly the biggest female signing in modern surf brand history, was credited largely to Farris’ long-time friendship and trust with Gilmore.

“Steph’s return to RC was intriguing given their female leadership,” one insider told us. “Steph has consistently collaborated with female brand leaders since her departure from RC in 2011.” It was also understood that her new contract came with creative terms—specifically, a marketing approach that wouldn’t echo past versions of Steph-as-brand-asset.

Ashley Reade, on the other hand, comes from outside the surf industry entirely. He’s spent two decades climbing Nike’s internal ladder. Interestingly, his departure has coincided with the Swoosh slowly creeping back into surf’s bloodstream with the star signings of Italo Ferreira and Sierra Kerr.

Outside of surfing, Nike’s 2025 campaign calendar included a SKIMS collab which saw a 60-foot inflatable Kim Kardashian blowup doll erected in Times Square. Not exactly The Search, but definitely a statement on swell inflation.

That said, Reade isn’t entirely foreign to the Rip Curl world. He grew up not far from Rip Curl’s HQ in Torquay and was a decorated AFL player in the ’90s, immortalized in the Redlegs Museum at Norwood Football Club and recently featured on the Sydney Swans’ More Than Footy podcast. So, no, he hasn’t surfed second reef Pipe, but he probably does know what a jam doughnut from the Torquay bakery tastes like.

In a 2023 piece for the Australian Financial Review, Reade advocated for getting Nike’s team back into the office after the remote-work boom. “We still think we’re better together, so we want to make sure we’ve got that ‘locker time’, Tuesday to Thursday. It’s really hard to build culture if you don’t have consistency of connection. It just is. We want to make sure we are in there for the moments that matter and the energy that is created.”

He added: “Culture is created by inclusion and by connection. People need to be inspired by the strategy and a north star.”

Call it a return to old-school leadership values—connection, direction, presence. Or music to NYU marketing professor Scott Galloway’s ears, another cheerleader of the return-to-office movement. “You should never be at home,” he declared at The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit in May. “That’s what I tell young people. Home is for seven hours of sleep and that’s it. The amount of time you spend at home is inversely correlated to your success professionally and romantically.”

Other than better office attendance, what does this mean for Rip Curl?

Reade’s appointment signals a clear pivot: less about creative storytelling and wetsuit R&D, more about structure, growth, and scale. It’s a corporate hire, sure—but from someone who grew up near the source with an intimate understanding of sports and marketing athletes.

Maybe a big blowup bell installed the Royal Botanical Gardens too?