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 Phillips |
New HAA President
Being elected president of the Harvard Alumni Association took Dan Phillips '60, M.B.A. '63, slightly by surprise. "I thought that when I won the Harvard Medal in 1995 I was being put out to pasture," he says. "This was a real honor and pleasure." It's also a good fit personally: Phillips has known the executive director of the HAA, classmate Jack Reardon, for 40 years, and he lives in Charles Square, just behind the Kennedy School. "It'll be hard to come up with an excuse for not making the meetings," he told Reardon.
Phillips has volunteered for Harvard in one capacity or other since graduating from the Business School. And except for one year (his "sabbatical," he calls it), he has worked for the same length of time at Fiduciary Trust, an investment-management firm where he became president and chief executive officer in 1993. He reflects that "People in my profession should have a master's in social work: when you deal with people's money, you're always part counselor." In fact, Phillips just ended a term as chair of the national board of Family Service of America, an agency he's been involved with for more than 25 years; the Boston chapter is one of the largest providers of family counseling in New England. He says it was particularly inspiring to represent the organization at President Clinton's summit on volunteerism in Philadelphia last April.
Outside of work and volunteering, Phillips and his wife, Diana, a lecturer at Harvard Divinity School, enjoy living in an academic community. Phillips counts "adventure travel" among his hobbies; last year he and his son, Brad, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. "It was fantastic," Phillips says. "We had great visibility at the summit; I could actually see the curvature of the earth."
He keeps an equally broad view of the University. On Class Day 1997, Phillips made his own case for volunteerism to graduating seniors: "Harvard needs and is entitled to your support and your criticism. If you seek to improve Harvard, do not harp from the outside. Rather, work effectively from within; be patient, realistic in your expectations, and never lose the fundamental hope and strength that you as an individual can make a vital difference in the quality of your life and the lives of others in this institution."