How the CEO of Brooks Running went from teaching high school to leading a billion-dollar fitness brand

November 1, 2025

Brooks Running CEO Dan Sheridan sits at the helm of a billion-dollar global fitness brand that has over 1,400 employees. His path to the C-suite wasn’t conventional, however.

Sheridan told Business Insider that he grew up in a household of teachers, and when it came time to choose a career, he decided to enter the family business, teaching high school-level physical education, history, and English.

Sheridan said he realized in his 20s that teaching wasn’t his passion, and had a friend working at Brooks Running, which at the time had 52 employees. Sheridan, who picked up running in college, was hired in a field sales and marketing job at the shoe brand, a position now referred to as a “guru.”

He’s been with the company ever since, having worked in nearly every role aside from shoe design during his 27-plus years with the company.

“It’s really a strange thing, the CEO title,” Sheridan said. “Because I think of myself as one of the teammates on Brooks — because I grew up here.”

The CEO said the company is on track to hit $1.6 billion in global sales by the end of this year, after surpassing a billion dollars in global revenue in 2024. Business Insider