For a guy who manages million-dollar portfolios on a daily basis, Ron Phillips is pretty humble.
“I like working with people and helping them solve problems,” he says.
He credits this simple approach to the golden rule: “Treat others as you would like to be treated.”
Phillips is vice president of Northern Trust Bank, the Chicago-based investment bank. Northern Trust opened its first local office in 1989; now its San Diego and La Jolla offices house 30 employees.
Locally, the bank manages approximately $1 billion in investments. With offices across the globe, it manages investments totaling about $340 billion, Phillips says.
– Personal Approach To Managing Wealth
He works with individuals to help them preserve their wealth as well as nurture it. This can be done through something as simple as a stock portfolio or through creative methods, such as starting a family foundation to ease tax burdens and allow for philanthropic giving.
“We help people build a diverse portfolio, protect it and pass it on in a tax-efficient way,” he says.
In addition to its investment services, Northern Trust operates as a normal full-service bank, handles corporate pension plans and manages nonprofits such as endowments and foundations.
Phillips says he brings a Midwest work ethic and a desire to help people to his position at the bank, which serves about 20 percent of the wealth market in the United States, he said.
A banker for more than 25 years, Phillips grew up in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
After high school, he followed his high school sweetheart, Reggie , who is now his wife of 37 years , to the University of Colorado.
The Phillips , now parents of two adult children , stayed in Colorado, where Ron Phillips worked his way up through the banking ranks to an eventual position as a bank president.
During the summers, he finished a graduate degree at the Stonier Graduate School of Banking in New Jersey.
– Moved West After Graduation
In 1985, the Phillips’ moved further west to San Diego where Ron took a position at what would later become the First National Bank of San Diego.
Following eight years in the San Diego business community, Phillips veered into nonprofit work for the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp.
Here, he was senior vice president with Team San Diego, a venture he says aimed to retain and increase San Diego jobs during a rough economic period.
Phillips had already been involved with a number of community organizations, including volunteering with the local YMCA and serving as chairman of the San Diego State University Business School Advisory Council.
He believed he could bring his financial and banking experience to the nonprofit sector.
“I felt with my business background, I could bring a different perspective,” he says. “I found it very rewarding to help them achieve their goals with a business-like approach.”
Phillips stayed put until 1999, when he started a one-year stint as executive director of the San Diego Hall of Champions.
– Valuable Lessons From Nonprofits
He said the time spent working for nonprofits taught him a worthwhile lesson.
“I learned the importance of helping people build a passion for a particular cause and then following through with that passion by donating time, money or whatever expertise they may have,” Phillips says.
But the career banker still missed the more tangible rewards of his original profession, saying that “community problems didn’t always have individual faces.”
So in May, Phillips returned to banking, accepting a vice president position at Northern Trust.
Bank officials quickly point out the institution doesn’t use conventional advertising mediums; they simply rely on word-of-mouth and event sponsorship to reach their target customers.
Phillips’ duties include arranging art exhibits or literary society sponsorships, tasks his colleagues say match his strengths.
“I think his strengths transcend banking,” says Sam Brown, a Northern Trust regional president. “He is a very compatible person and has the ability to get a lot of things done he has a real sincere desire to help people and solve their problems.”
– Watching Local Economic Growth
Phillips has closely watched San Diego’s economic growth over the past decade and how much individual wealth it has spawned.
“The diversified economy created many situations where people found themselves with the pleasant prospect of managing wealth,” he says.
That’s where the bank steps in, he says.
Phillips says many executives and those in the dot-com world found themselves so busy that they didn’t have time to explore all their investment options.
“These are people who are very good at making money and running a business, but might not have the time to manage their wealth,” he says.
With the economic boom seemingly coming to an end, Phillips stresses to his clients to ignore the day-to-day market reports and be keen to the long haul.
“Markets go up and down, but we try to help our clients develop a strategy for the long run,” he says. This includes investing in the right industries, Phillips adds.
Every investor is different, he says, as some hope to invest conservatively just to pass down their wealth, while some hope to invest for income.
Brown, who has known Phillips since his early days in the San Diego business community, said the bank and the community benefit from Phillips’ professional strengths and knack for getting people to work together.
“It would be impossible for me to go out and solve the unemployment problem in San Diego by myself, but if I can get 40 or 50 businesses to work together, we can make an impact,” Phillips says.
Donohue is a freelance writer for the San Diego Business Journal.
