As the Vice President of Public Affairs at Novolex, Phil has become a nationally recognized expert in both plastic and paper packaging sustainability, as well as green marketing claims. Phil is an established researcher that advocates for waste reduction and lifecycle thinking in all products and business models and subscribes to the Sustainable Materials Management school of thought. He has published corporate and independent white papers that provide direction for companies to map out their sustainable packaging road maps, as well as making viable and transparent sustainability marketing claims.
As a thought leader on boards and committees, Phil has provided counsel and focused on sustainability policy within the Plastics Industry Association, American Forest and Paper Association, Foodservice Packaging Institute, Flexible Packaging Association, American Institute for Packaging and the Environment (AMERIPEN), Sustainable Packaging Coalition, Institute for the Scrap Recycling Industry, and other leading organizations across the industry.
Phil’s extensive education includes a master’s degrees in Procurement and Acquisition Management from Webster University, specializing in reducing waste in logistics and manufacturing systems. Phil has earned a certificate in Lean Six Sigma from Villanova University in addition to an Executive Master of Business Administration with a focus Sustainability Marketing from Washington University in Saint Louis. Phil is also fluent in Mandarin Chinese.
In the media, Phil has been quoted and featured in online and print publications such as Wall Street Journal, Waste 360, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Waste Dive, and Pennlive. Phil has also been a featured guest on national and regional broadcast programs including Radio Times, WHYY, National Public Radio, The Joy Cardin Show, Wisconsin Public Radio, California Public Radio, Southern California Public Broadcasting Service, and numerous podcasts. Outside of Novolex, he has been a featured sustainability lecturer at Washington University in Saint Louis, Carnegie Melon University, and the University of Indiana. He is frequently asked to provide expert testimony about packaging lifecycles and recycling to legislative committees and regional EPA workshops across the country.
In service to the community, Phil was an Air Force Officer where he served both as and intelligence analyst/operator and logistics readiness officer with a diverse background of global assignments including time as an environmental compliance officer until retirement in 2007. Phil’s inspiration to make the world more sustainable originated in his military assignments. Phil has stood among the Kuwaiti oil field fires after the first gulf war and served at the Beijing embassy as coal smog covered the city. These scenes contrasted to others where he lived near and swam among the coral reefs Hawaii and climbed the mythical jagged and cloud covered mountains of Guilin China.