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Mr. John Phillips

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (FL)

Contact Details

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (FL)

Bio

John Phillips was named Embry-Riddle’s Director of Athletics in January 2014 after serving as the Eagles’ Associate Athletics Director for seven years.

Born and raised in Kensington, Maryland, Phillips came to Daytona Beach in 1989, enrolling as a student at Embry-Riddle. Phillips played baseball for the Eagles for three seasons, while completing both his undergraduate (B.S., 1990) and graduate degrees (M.S., 1992).

Phillips returned to the University as the program’s first-ever Director of Sports Marketing and Promotions in August 1997, and was subsequently named Assistant Director of Athletics in 1998. In 2007, he was named Associate Director of Athletics, supervising the day-to-day operations of the athletic department, including facilities, game management, sports information, sports medicine and sports marketing for the Daytona Beach campus.

During his tenure at Embry-Riddle, Phillips has served as the tournament director for all nine NAIA national championships that Embry-Riddle has hosted, including five for golf and four national soccer tournaments. In 2008, the NAIA honored him with the Charles Morris Award as the NAIA’s National Athletic Administrator of the Year. In addition, he was honored by The Sun Conference as the league's Athletic Director of the Year in 2014-15.

In 2010, Phillips was named to the Board of Directors for the National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators (NACMA), becoming just the second administrator from an NAIA institution to be named to this board. In addition to serving on the Board of Directors for NACMA, he is also a past chair of the NAIA-NACMA Advisory Board, a panel of NAIA administrators that provided leadership and professional development opportunities in sports marketing to other NAIA institutions.

Internally, Phillips has served the University in numerous other capacities during his 20-years on staff, including Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) Reaccreditation Audit Team, ERAU’s Women’s Initiative Committee, ERAU’s Diversity and Inclusion Task Force and the Embry-Riddle Alumni Advisory Council.

Locally, Phillips currently serves as the Chair of the Daytona Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau’s Sports Advisory Committee. This committee is charged with providing guidance and marketing expertise in attracting regional, national and international sporting events to the Daytona Beach community. In 2015, he was nominated to serve on the Halifax Area Advertising Authority (HAAA) Board of Directors. HAAA is charged with promoting tourism offerings within the greater Daytona Beach area, from Ponce Inlet to Ormond By The Sea.

During his tenure at Embry-Riddle, the sports marketing and promotions staff has earned 24 NACMA “Best of” awards, including gold medals for things such as “sponsorship activation,” “best student promotion” and “best targeted group promotion.” He has been a featured speaker on topics related to sports marketing at the NAIA convention on seven different occasions, at the CoSIDA Convention in 2011 and 2012, and at the NACMA Convention on nine separate occasions since 2008. He has presented on topics such as “Big Time Promotions on a Small-Time Budget,” Social Networking and the “Brand of You.”

The sports information staff at Embry-Riddle has also garnered national attention during his tenure, capturing over 60 CoSIDA awards for Excellence in Publications, and was honored on seven occasions with the NAIA’s Gary Spitler Award for the best overall sports publications in the NAIA.

Phillips has also served as the voice of Embry-Riddle basketball for the last 20 seasons and has also done broadcast work for the Eagles baseball team since 1999. In addition to his broadcast work for ERAU, he has worked as the public address announcer for both the Daytona Cubs and DeLand High School football. In his current role with WNDB (1150-AM & 93.5-FM), he anchors WNDB’s motorsports coverage for events such as the Rolex 24, the Daytona 500 and the Coke Zero 400. He has also served as the play-by-play announcer for high school football and basketball, working for WSBB (New Smyrna Beach), WNDA (DeLand) and WELE (Ormond Beach).

Phillips and his wife Ann are parents of Lauren, Zachary and Rachel.