Patrick L. Phillips

From 2009 to early 2018, Patrick L. Phillips served as the Global Chief Executive Officer of the Urban Land Institute (ULI). ULI, which currently has more than 200 employees and a budget of nearly $75 million, is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has offices throughout the world. As Global CEO, Phillips worked with ULI’s member leaders to lead all aspects of ULI’s strategy, mission delivery, resource allocation, and fiscal performance. Phillips, a longtime member of ULI, has had a career in the economic analysis of real estate and land use that spans more than 30 years. Prior to taking the position as the top staff executive at ULI, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of ERA AECOM (formerly Economics Research Associates). In that role, he coordinated all aspects of ERA’s organization, strategy, business development, and service delivery. His own consulting practice focused specifically on the intersection of private investment and public policy. To further expand ERA’s reach and impact, Phillips guided the successful sale of the company in 2007 to AECOM, a globally renowned provider of professional technical and management support services to a broad range of industries, including land use, transportation, environmental and energy. His work at ERA AECOM focused on development strategy, development economics and feasibility analysis, and transaction-related services for real estate investors and developers, public agencies, financial institutions, universities, and non-profit organizations. This involved all major categories of urban land use, with an emphasis on the market, economic, and financial aspects of a new generation of downtown and suburban mixed-use projects. Under Phillip’s direction, ERA provided consulting services for such notable development projects as Mockingbird Station in Dallas, Atlantic Station in Atlanta, and the repositioning of Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza; as well as public planning projects for the Hudson Yards in New York City and Houston’s Buffalo Bayou. Phillips has often advised public agencies and non-profit organizations on issues related to public-private partnerships for economic development. He is a frequent speaker on urban development issues, and is the author or co-author of eight books and numerous articles. In 2005, Phillips led a nationally prominent economic development team as part of the ULI advisory services panel making recommendations on post-Katrina rebuilding efforts in New Orleans. Patrick teaches at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design Executive Education Program and at the Carey Business School of Johns Hopkins University. His academic training includes a graduate degree in public management and finance from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

In the Waterfront Toronto RFP for Quayside, Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs saw a key opportunity for a demonstration project unbound by the conventions of traditional urban planning or real estate economics. This was something new: a chance to innovate at the urban scale, to develop, deploy, and measure the success of a web of new technologies in an actual neighborhood.
During my time as ULI’s global chief executive officer, it has become increasingly clear to me that one of the great attributes of the Institute is its ability to embrace change and evolve without losing sight of its core values. After eight very rewarding and fulfilling years at the helm, it’s time for me to step down.
With so much about the built environment now under scrutiny, the Urban Land Institute’s work has never been more necessary or relevant.
While Hurricane Harvey was certainly a historical event, each event exposes vulnerabilities resulting from how we’ve built in the past. Each event also yields lessons about how to make our cities resilient, and ultimately more competitive.
ULI’s Spring Meeting in Seattlewas one of the best Spring Meetings I have attended, with a recordbreaking turnout (4,000-plus members and guests) and far-betterthan-expected registration and sponsorship revenues. In addition to the meeting’s outstanding financial outcome, the speaker lineup was extraordinary, including former Vice President Joe Biden, Alaska Airlines chief executive officer Bradley Tilden, and The Boys in the Boat author Daniel James Brown, whose inspirational messages individuals and as an organization to new levels of excellence.
ULI has long supported and promoted sustainable development that conserves energy, land, and other natural resources. Our leadership in sustainability has never been driven by government regulations or policies. It has always been a market-driven, value-creating response to the changing environment, and nothing will change that. The forces that have shaped the institutionalization of sustainability and its wide adoption are not going away. In fact, they are going to become stronger and more prevalent in the years ahead.
We are delighted to announce that Ralph Boyd, an outstanding individual who is currently the chief executive officer (CEO) of the American Red Cross’s Massachusetts region, has accepted our offer to serve as ULI’s CEO for the Americas. He brings to ULI nonprofit CEO experience and membership-based organizational experience, familiarity with a decentralized organizational structure, financial leadership, gravitas, and the ability to act both strategically and tactically.
Of all of the Institute’s many offerings, perhaps the one that best delivers an ideal combination of member value and mission advancement is our Advisory Services program.
The New York Timesrecently published an interesting article on the popularity of Washington, D.C., as an “ideal place to grow older,” citing such senior-friendly assets as easy walkability and a prevalence of community gardens doing double duty as sources of fresh food and places to socialize.
This past May, ULI Boston released a report, Building for the Middle: Housing Greater Boston’s Workforce, which spotlights a troubling phenomenon—a 25-year decline in the number of middle-income households in Greater Boston, which occurred while the number of low- and high-income households rose significantly.
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