Phil, a native Mississippian, lives in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Georgia. He writes a weekly business column for the Magnolia Tribune and is working on a variety of other projects.
He retired on June 30, 2019, as Director of ELSEWorks Business Analysts at the Millsaps College Else School of Management. He also taught Business Strategy in the Business Advantage Program at Millsaps College. He has taught over 1,000 students, written over 800 articles and columns, written 11 books, and assisted over 100 communities and organizations with strategic planning. He is currently business contributor for Magnolia Tribune. In February 2016 he was inducted as a Lifetime Member of the Mississippi Economic Development Council. He now resides in north Georgia, where he continues his writing and takes on selected consulting and training assignments.
His previous positions include Coordinator of Capacity Development at the John C. Stennis Institute of Government, Mississippi State University, Vice President of Community and Economic Development at Mississippi Valley Gas Company (now Atmos Energy), Director of Economic Development for the City of Jackson, Mississippi and Executive Director of the Mississippi Real Estate Commission.
He is a Past-President of the Mississippi Association of Partners in Education, the Mississippi Main Street Association, the Mississippi Economic Development Council, and the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum.
He received his undergraduate degree from Belhaven University and his MBA from Millsaps College. He is also a graduate of the Senior Executives in State & Local Government executive program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. During his military service, he was Security Team Leader for Army One, the Presidential helicopter.