PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- The richest man in Oregon has $1.5 billion more in the bank -- but now owns less stock in the company he started.

Nike co-founder and chairman Phil Knight sold 18 million shares of his stock in the world's largest athletic shoe and clothing company during the past year.

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The sales were disclosed in Nike's proxy statement filed Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Knight owned 91.9 million shares in Nike as of July 14, worth $5.13 billion based on the stock's closing price of $55.81 that day on the New York Stock Exchange.

The total is down from 109.9 million shares worth $6.46 billion as of the close of trading July 16, 2007. Those totals do not include the more than 30 million shares owned by two of Knight's investment firms and his Knight Foundation charity. Nike's shares closed Friday at $62.95.

Knight still directly owns nearly one-fifth of Nike's outstanding shares and controls nine seats on the shoemaker's 12-seat board. He founded the Beaverton-area company with the late University of Oregon track coach Bill Bowerman.

Nike also revealed that the earnings of its top two executives -- CEO and President Mark Parker and Nike brand president Charlie Denson -- jumped by at least one-third, thanks largely to bonuses tied to pre-tax profits.

Parker earned $8.8 million in base salary, stock awards, option awards and incentives during the fiscal year ended May 31.

According to company figures, that's up 41 percent from his fiscal 2007 earnings of $6.2 million. Most of the increase came from $1.9 million in additional Nike stock and options awards and a $535,000 boost in performance-incentive pay.

Denson, the company's second-ranking executive, saw his earnings jump 33 percent to $7.3 million. Nike profits grew 26 percent last fiscal year to $1.9 billion.