Published on: July 9, 2026
WHOOP, the human performance company, today named Dirk-Jan “DJ” van Hameren as Chief Marketing Officer. The appointment comes as WHOOP surpasses 3 million members worldwide after adding its latest one million members in just seven months. The former Nike Global Chief Marketing Officer and two-time Olympian joins WHOOP to help build the world’s defining global brand for human performance and proactive health.
Van Hameren spent more than three decades at Nike, where he rose from the mailroom at the company’s European headquarters to become one of the most influential marketing leaders in the world. He served as NIKE Inc.’s Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, leading Nike’s worldwide marketing organization.
Van Hameren joins WHOOP as the company enters a period of unprecedented acceleration. Over more than a decade, WHOOP has earned the trust of the world’s highest-performing athletes by helping them understand, train, and improve their performance. Today, WHOOP is bringing that same performance mindset to millions of people who want to live longer, healthier, higher-performing lives.
That momentum is reflected in the company’s growth. WHOOP recently surpassed 3 million members worldwide after adding its latest million members in just seven months. International membership has grown more than 11x since January 2023, and today 58% of members live outside the United States. WHOOP is also reaching a broader audience than ever before, with teen membership growing more than 10x since January 2023, women’s membership more than doubling over the past year, and membership among adults over 60 increasing more than 130% year over year.
“The next great health company will do more than deliver breakthrough technology,” said Will Ahmed, Founder and CEO of WHOOP. “It will also inspire people to take control of their health every day. DJ has spent his career building brands that shape culture and motivate millions of people, and I’m excited for him to bring that experience to WHOOP.”
At WHOOP, van Hameren will lead global marketing across brand, creative, international markets, media, athlete and sports partnerships, and product storytelling. He will help further expand WHOOP as a brand rooted in sport, trusted in health, and embraced by people committed to reaching their full potential.
“What attracted me to WHOOP was the scale and importance of the opportunity,” said van Hameren. “The company has earned extraordinary credibility with elite athletes and built an incredibly engaged, global community of more than three million members. But I believe we’re still at the very beginning. Proactive health will become one of the defining categories of our generation. WHOOP will build the global brand that defines it.”
Before becoming Nike’s Chief Marketing Officer, van Hameren served as Global Vice President and General Manager of Nike Sportswear, where he led $7 billion of Nike Sportswear revenue growth and helped drive the success of iconic franchises including Air Max, Air Force 1, and Tech Fleece. During his tenure at Nike, he also led the ideation and execution of the Livestrong initiative, the award-winning “Dream Crazy” campaign, and the company’s global marketing for the 2004, 2012, and 2024 Olympic Games. Prior to his business career, van Hameren represented the Netherlands as a track cyclist at the 1992 Barcelona and 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.
Van Hameren has been recognized by Campaign US CMO 50 and Forbes’ World’s Most Influential CMOs. After leaving Nike, he co-founded Superconnector Sports, launched his advisory firm, Mailroom Marathon 7, and serves as an Operating Advisor to Arctos Partners.
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