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Steven Eisman, best known for betting on the collapse of the US housing market, has been put on indefinite leave of absence by his employer Neuberger Berman after saying he was “celebrating” the destruction of Gaza.

A managing director at New York-based Neuberger Berman since 2014, Eisman featured in the Michael Lewis book The Big Short. His character was played by actor Steve Carell in the 2016 film version. In the adaptation, Carell’s character was given the name of Mark Baum.

His comments on his X account, which included the Neuberger Berman logo, responded to a graphic post showing burning buildings, with people shouting in agony, apparently as a result of an Israeli attack.

The video was posted with comments about the lack of international concern over such incidents and said: “The world is silent.”

Eisman replied to the post on Thursday: “We are not silent. We are celebrating.”

He later apologised for his remark, writing that he had intended to refer to Israel’s attacks on Hizbollah in Lebanon. He has since deleted the account involved altogether.

Eisman became famous for shorting collateralised debt obligations backed by US housing mortgages before their collapse in 2007 and 2008.

Eisman’s future at the firm remains uncertain, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The company, which on Friday evening said Eisman had been put on indefinite leave of absence, had said earlier that his “personal comments on social media are his alone and he does not speak for Neuberger Berman. Even though Mr Eisman has acknowledged that he mistook the content of the post he responded to, his actions on social media were irresponsible and objectionable”.

Eisman has taken a strong pro-Israel stance on X and issued posts on the subject regularly against those who have criticised the country.

His strident commentary has extended to politics as well. Earlier this week he stated that if Kamala Harris won the US presidential election and the Democrats took control of both houses of Congress he expected the US market to go “straight down”. He has predicted that Donald Trump will win the election.

A Harvard lawyer by training, Eisman gave up the profession to become a financial analyst at Wall Street investment bank Oppenheimer. He later moved to the Connecticut-based hedge fund FrontPoint Partners, eventually focusing on the mispricing of subprime residential mortgages. He left FrontPoint in 2011 and set up his own fund, Emrys Partners, the following year. He joined Neuberger after Emrys closed.

Neuberger Berman, once owned by the collapsed Wall Street investment bank Lehman Brothers, spun off as an employee-run investment firm in 2009. Since then the company has prospered. The investment company at present has $481bn of assets under management with 739 employees, according to its website.

A tornado has swept through a Hampshire town, causing damage to properties and trees to fall down.

The Tornado and Storm Research Organisation said it tracked the column of air moving about 1.2 miles (2km) through the Aldershot area shortly after 12:00 BST.

Nobody is believed to have been injured, Rushmoor Borough Council said.

The authority urged residents to call emergency services if they saw damaged trees they believed were dangerous.

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service said: “Firefighters are part of a joint response at an incident in Aldershot after a number of properties and trees were damaged in strong winds.

“Crews from Rushmoor and Surrey Fire and Rescue Services were first called shortly after midday and are working closely with partner agencies to make the scene safe.”

Paul Knightley, head of the Tornado and Storm Research Organisation, told the BBC: “The formation of tornadoes is still the subject of intensive research, and their exact mechanisms are yet to be understood.

“In a broad sense, though, pre-existing rotation in the lower atmosphere can be stretched by the strong upwards-moving air in a thunderstorm, and focussed into a tornado. This seems likely to have been what happened today.”

Essex Police

‘Ready access to knives’

Nike’s outgoing chief executive, John Donahoe, is an Ivy League-educated former tech executive and Bain consultant. The man who will take his place, Elliott Hill, started at Nike as an intern and spent his entire career at “the swoosh”, bar a brief stint as an assistant trainer for the Dallas Cowboys football team.

The difference in profiles is stark, and one that Nike hopes will reassure shareholders while energising staff for the monumental task ahead — shaking off an existential crisis that has threatened its position as the world’s biggest sportswear maker and one of its most recognisable brands. Sales have been slowing, its products have fallen out of fashion and its retail strategy has been out of step with consumer preferences.

To regain its authority in the industry, the board decided, Nike needed an experienced insider rather than a professional executive to lead it. Despite his history with Nike, however, Hill will have his work cut out for him.

Current and former employees, people familiar with the executive transition and initial readouts from Wall Street analysts signal that Hill will receive a warm welcome from staff when he takes the helm on October 14. The reaction to hiring back Hill — who is coming out of retirement — was overwhelmingly positive within Nike, according to one current employee. “Elliott is truly a revered leader at the company,” they said.

“I worked with so many people during my three decades at Nike, and Elliott was by far one of the most inspirational, most supportive and most down-to-earth colleagues I ever knew,” Scott Reames, Nike’s internal historian who retired in 2021, said in an email. “Judging by the way my phone has been blowing up since the announcement I am FAR from alone on this!”

The abrupt executive transition comes after months of speculation on Wall Street about Donahoe’s future at Nike. At the time of his appointment, in late 2019, the company had already articulated goals of hitting $50bn in revenue and ramping up online sales directly to consumers — benchmarks that an experienced executive with stints at Bain and eBay would be well qualified to achieve. 

Donahoe met those demands ably, steering Nike through the Covid-19 pandemic and even managing to return to sales growth by the end of 2020, less than a year into the role. As diversity, equity and inclusion became a focus of large companies, he won early praise from staffers for listening to their concerns.

But his downfall was his known weakness: unlike previous Nike leaders, such as his predecessor Mark Parker, Donahoe was not a “product guy”, someone with their finger on the pulse of design. Retailers from JD Sports to Foot Locker spoke freely in recent months of hotter sneakers from Adidas, On, New Balance and Hoka. 

Nike’s decision to vacate shelf space at partner retailers in favour of its own direct-selling strategy — which predated Donahoe but accelerated under his leadership — only opened the doors for competitors to take market share.

Even Donahoe’s management style marked him as an outsider. From the start of his brief reign, he told employees he wanted new ideas presented in black-and-white, bullet-pointed PowerPoints, rather than colourful, creative pitches.

Board members were actively discussing succession plans this summer, one person said, and also considered two other internal Nike candidates, Craig Williams, president of geographies and marketplace, and Heidi O’Neill, president of consumer, product and brand. But Williams, who joined in 2019 from Coca-Cola, and O’Neill, who came to Nike in 1998 from Levi Strauss, could not match Hill’s decades of experience.

In a post on X, former Nike marketing staffer Kyle Stack wrote that “to have a 30-year Nike vet lead the company is reassuring . . . Hill experienced Nike’s frenetic growth in the ‘90s as part of the sales org. He understands the business as well as anyone.”

Hill, who turns 61 on October 2, will become Nike’s fifth-ever chief executive, and the third Nike lifer after co-founder Phil Knight and Parker. The only Nike CEO before Donahoe to join from outside the company was William Perez, a former SC Johnson executive who lasted in the top job for just over a year.

Nike has hired back other executives with ample internal experience over the past year, including Tom Peddie, former vice-president of North America, who will help the company rebalance its wholesale partnerships.

Nike’s efforts to turn itself round are entering a crucial stretch. The company is expected to report quarterly earnings on October 1, detailing the important back-to-school period that analysts look to for indications of demand for basketball shoes and hoodies. Nike has also set its first investor day in nine years for November, where it will lay out a vision in greater detail for shareholders who have grown worried about the recent stock slides. 

Shares of Nike are down more than 20 per cent in 2024, though the stock rose 6 per cent on Friday.

Jay Sole, managing director at UBS, wrote on Friday that “Hill is an experienced, effective leader who could put Nike back on a growth path.” However, that “sentiment could turn more bearish as the market realises Nike’s fundamentals likely aren’t great and there are probably no quick-fixes to Nike’s issues”, he added.  

Sole pointed out that Hill’s experience in sales, rather than product development, could be a weak point for the company that has been slow to introduce compelling new sneakers in recent months.

Changes atop Nike will not stop the tide of competitors eating into its popularity. “What is unchanged is the heightened competitive environment framed by emergent brands and certain resurgent legacy brands,” wrote John Kernan, managing director of TD Cowen.

A HIT-and -run driver who left a seven-year-old boy to die in the road kept it from his wife and went to work following the accident, an inquest heard.

William Brown was playing football with two friends in his garden close to a busy main road near Folkestone, Kent on December 6 last year.

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The ball went into the road between 5pm and 5.30pm , and the youngster climbed out of the garden, running to get the ball.

He was struck by a Peugeot Expert van driven by Stewart Powell, 49, and the collision pushed him into the path of a Citeoen car.

William died of “catastrophic” head injuries at the scene.

The driver of the Citroen – a mum who had her three kids with her – called paramedics.

An ambulance was in traffic nearby and went to the scene, but nothing could be done to save the youngster.

Van driver Powell initially pulled over, before leaving the scene of the accident at Sandgate, Kent.

Powell called 999 the following day, telling officers “the whole f***ing thing just stressed me out” as he described how William ran out in front of him.

He had “completed a day’s work and was intending to tell his wife” – who brought the subject up to him first, causing him to break down and then call cops, the inquest heard on Friday.

Powell, from Romney Marsh, was arrested and later admitted driving without insurance and failing to stop at the scene of an accident at court in May.

He received 14 weeks imprisonment, suspended for a year, and was banned from driving for 12 months by Folkestone magistrates.

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William’s mother, Laura Brown, had previously slammed Powell for leaving her son in the road “like an animal” and said that he “deserved better”.

She said in a powerful victim impact statement: “Stewart stood watching the catastrophic incident unfold. He made a conscious decision to get back into his van and leave him.

“That behaviour is simply inhumane.

“We had to deal with the hammer blow someone hit him and left the scene.

“The not knowing who killed William tortured my mind. I was begging the van driver to come forward. Stewart’s actions prolonged suffering we were already enduring.”

The inquest into William’s death was told on Friday that Powell would not have been able to stop in time to avoid hitting the youngster.

Several witnesses came forward after the crash to report they had seen William and his ball in the road before the collision, the inquest heard.

Sergeant Mark Myers of Kent Police’s Forensic Collision Investigation Unit, told the inquest in Maidstone that if William had not stopped before entering the road, he would have only been visible to oncoming traffic for one second at a typical walking pace.

He said: “That’s one second that he would be visible to a driver. If William was running, that time would have been halved.”

Coroner Ms Hepburn asked the officer: “If William had come to a stop before coming into the path of the van this would have been extended?”

PS Myers replied: “That is correct. The likelihood would be the driver’s only response would be to come to a stop in his own lane.

“If the scenario took place as we explained when William was in the carriageway, the collision was unavoidable.

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“That hazard takes, from research, 1.5 to 2 seconds to stop.

“It is likely that Powell would have still been in the perception phase when the collision took place.”

Police Constable Darren Chapman told the inquest that Powell contacted police about his involvement in the crash the next day.

He told the inquest Powell was driving home when the collision with William took place.

He said: “Due to the shock he was in, he decided to travel home and stay at his house and had a restless night’s sleep before travelling to work the following morning.

“He completed a day’s work and was intending to tell his wife. She brought the subject up first which caused him to break down and then call the police.”

Concluding, Coroner Katrina Hepburn said of William’s death: “The evidence I have heard is that William is seen to have climbed out of the front garden and onto the road.

“It was seen that he had retrieved the ball at least once prior to the impact.

“At least one vehicle had braked to allow him to cross the road to retrieve the ball.

“It is noted that the football was kicked out again and landed on the road and went on to the other side of the carriageway – onto the southside with several parked cars.

“I find the William had left the garden again and the evidence suggested he was able to cross over the carriageway to get over to the ball.”

Ms Hepburn added: “He has stepped out from behind the parked vehicles.

“He seems to have come into contact with the van and caused himself to be thrown into the opposite carriageway and into the path of the red Citroen.

“The van driver stopped and looked back and acknowledge he had struck a child – but was in shock and left the scene.”

She said the Citroen driver had stopped at the scene and contacted emergency services – but there was an ambulance nearby.

The coroner added: “Very sadly, the lifesaving attempts were futile. William had sustained catastrophic injuries and he was pronounced dead at 6.18pm.

“The conclusion then, taking this all together, is there is no clear footage or witness accounts of what exactly what happened.

“He crossed the road and whilst returning to his home address, he stepped out from between parked cars into the path of an oncoming van.

“Sadly he has come into the path of the oncoming van which has been unable to avoid the collision.

“There would be insufficient time for him to have reacted. There would have been even less time if William had been running.

“I think it likely to be the case that, at seven years old, William would not have appreciated the danger of crossing the road.

“As William was not in the car, I think that the more appropriate conclusion is simply one of accident.”

William’s parents Laura, 41, and William Brown Snr, 35, say they have forgiven Powell.

Ms Brown was granted special permission from His Majesty King Charles to bury her son in the closed cemetery at the Church of St Mary & St Eanswythe.

The burial required the permission of the King’s Privy Council to be allowed – which was granted ahead of William’s funeral on January 14.

William was the first person to be laid to rest in the yard since 1855.

The churchyard where William is buried stands next to St Eanswythe’s Primary School where he attended.

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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Internal opposition removed. Powerful capitals and political forces neutered. Enough overlapping responsibility in her team to ensure she’s the only possible arbiter of actionable power. By appointing a new slate of European commissioners in her own image, president Ursula von der Leyen this week ensured she will enter her second five-year stint at the head of the EU’s executive with an ever-tighter grip on the Brussels machine.

On Tuesday, von der Leyen unveiled a tapestry of political compromises. She handed out grandiose titles to important member states such as France, Spain and Italy while keeping the key levers of power in the hands of her allies — and herself.

A day earlier, she disposed of her most prominent internal critic, the erstwhile French commissioner Thierry Breton, with a deft piece of political horse-trading; convincing French President Emmanuel Macron to send a more amenable replacement in exchange for one of those grandiose titles. 

In a maze of overlapping responsibilities and shared policy control, von der Leyen has unveiled a team of “equals” with enough complexity and chaos to ensure she is above the fray.

Even people involved in the formation of her team — known as the college of commissioners — describe it as “a matrix”, “a complicated structure” and “a lot of cross links”. 

Those on the outside are more blunt.

“It’s deliciously balanced in a way that there are enough people on each issue to ensure they will never all agree,” said a senior EU diplomat involved in the lobbying for commission portfolios. “Which means she’s always going to be the one making the final decision.”

“Without a doubt, she’s coming into this next five years even stronger than before,” the diplomat added.

At an informal gathering of her new team of commissioners, von der Leyen encouraged the five incumbents who served in her first term to explain to the 21 newcomers what to expect. The message was clear: the supporting chorus might be different, but the lead actor remains the same. 

“Welcome to The Ursula Show,” quipped one person in attendance.

An admitted workaholic, the slight 65-year-old lives in a small apartment on the 13th floor of the EU’s Berlaymont headquarters. Former office space has been refashioned into sparse living quarters, meaning she sleeps just footsteps from her desk.

“She’s the hardest working of all of us,” said a person who works closely with her. “It’s often brutal to keep up.”

Diligent and details-focused to the point of driving some of her aides to distraction, von der Leyen has over the past five years greatly expanded the power of her office at the expense of both EU institutions and the prime ministers and presidents she was appointed by.

She responded to the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by centralising decision-making around herself, delivering outcomes such as a pan-EU vaccine programme and a rapid sanctions programme against Moscow that was co-ordinated with the US White House.

As domestic political turmoil has weakened the clout of Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz — two offices that have traditionally steered EU priorities — von der Leyen has pitched herself as the answer to Henry Kissinger’s mythical question: “who do I call if I want to speak to Europe?”.

Few decisions are now reached in Brussels without the approval or at least acquiescence of “the 13th floor”.

Critics say she routinely overstretches her powers and bypasses proper due process. She is subject to an ongoing legal demand to publish private text messages with Albert Bourla, chief executive of Pfizer, during the race for Covid-19 vaccine contracts.

But admirers, including many EU leaders, revere her ability to get things done by cutting through the byzantine layers of European bureaucracy.

Born in Brussels in 1958, where her father was one of the original German Eurocrats, von der Leyen enrolled at the London School of Economics in 1978 under a false name and police protection due to kidnap threats related to her father’s prominent political career.

She later graduated in Hannover as a doctor of medicine, before raising her young family in California for four years while her husband worked at Stanford University.

A mother of seven, she was first elected to the German state parliament of Lower Saxony in 2003. She would serve 14 years in chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet, first as minister for family affairs, then labour and social affairs and finally defence.

In 2019 she was plucked from relative obscurity by Merkel and Macron to lead the European Commission after more prominent alternatives failed to win political backing. She landed in Brussels underestimated by many who assumed she could be easily manipulated by national capitals and the commission bureaucracy.

Those same bureaucrats now worry that with five years’ experience, a more amenable commission and continued weakness in Paris and Berlin, nothing is left to stand in the way of her personal ambition and drive.

henry.foy@ft.com