Richard Phillips

For more than 20 years, Richard Phillips has helped companies, non-profits and political candidates build leadership momentum for products, services and ideas. Phillips is president of Phillips & Company, a global business development and strategic communications company, focused on helping companies in dynamic markets including space technology, digital security, telecommunications, homeland security and mobile technology. Phillips & Company works with established commercial space companies and emerging space technology leaders to help them leverage the Space Economy for sustainable revenue growth. Prior to founding Phillips & Company, Phillips served as Chief Communications Officer of Simplified Development Corp., an Austin-based provider of telecommunications software, where he led marketing and communications strategy for North America, Asia and Europe. Prior to Simplified, Phillips served as Director of Corporate Communications at NIC, a leading provider of eGovernment services. In that capacity, Phillips worked directly with state CIOs and other state and local government leaders and associations including the National Governors Association to launch the eGovernment Web Privacy Coalition aimed at ensuring the protection of private data and information. Before that, Phillips served as Vice President of the Next-Generation Communications Practice at Cunningham Communication, a communications consulting firm, where he managed accounts for global leaders in telecommunications and Internet technologies, including Sprint Corporation. Phillips has also served as Director of Public Affairs for the Reason Foundation, a national public policy think tank where he was responsible for strategic planning and communications with national media and federal, state, and local government officials. Phillips successfully built strategic coalitions with both opinion leaders and associations in order to advance public policy programs and solutions in transportation, education and environmental policy. Phillips was appointed to Texas Governor Rick Perry’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Advisory Council with the Texas Office of Homeland Security. He is an adjunct professor at St. Edward’s University New College and a 1997-98 Graduate of Leadership Austin. Phillips earned a Bachelors degree in Economics with Distinction from Boston University and a Masters in Public Policy from Georgetown University.