Muktesh “Micky” Pant, CMO and the No. 2 man in Reebok International, has quit to start off a yoga enterprise in India and the United States. He joined Reebok in 1999, and during his tenure, the company launched a hit line of sneakers. He signed on Chinese basketball star Yao Ming, who plays for the Houston Rockets, and also got hip-hop star Jay-Z to endorse the company’s products. Pant was instrumental in launching an ad blitz against rivals Nike.

Reebok also returned as a Super Bowl sponsor in 2003 with an instantly-popular ad featuring a fictional “Office Linebacker,” given to delivering punishing body tackles in the workplace. In a follow-up ad, the Reebok linebacker was seen smacking down a streaker figure that had served as a popular pitchman for Beaverton, Oregon-based Nike.

Pant told Reuters that he would return to India to start his new venture, which would be built around yoga. “I always wanted to start a concept where you could package and teach yoga,” he says. “I will touch 50 in September and it is time to start a new chapter. I only hope it is not Chapter 11.” In this, he was demonstrating a particularly interesting pose: tongue firmly in cheek.