Patricia S. Phillips, Vice President

While most recruiters race to find the most available talent, Patty Phillips delights in identifying the most qualified talent for her corporate clients. When it comes to filling critical director, managing director, senior management, vice president and/or presidential roles, corporate hiring managers have the right, and the obligation, to seek out experienced candidates and industry leaders with a track record of relevant success for the opportunity at hand. Patty’s track record of experience with all sides of the talent acquisition process makes her ideally suited to be your trusted search advisor.

Her career began as a commercial banker for JPMorgan Chase, where she counseled business owners whose companies generated between $10 - $250 million in annual revenue. After a ten year pattern of career progression she became introspective about her own comparative advantage, finally recognizing that her sales success was tightly tied to an ability to read the true motivations of others. She began to explore career paths where she could utilize this comparative advantage more often.

After making her career-changing discovery, Patty left Chase to manage the upstate New York operation for Drake Beam Morin, a global outplacement consulting firm. At DBM she helped hundreds of downsized professionals transition successfully from one career path to another. Patty was next recruited to head up the Career Management Office for the Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester, a top 30-ranked MBA program, where proper matching of student talent to employer needs increased the school’s graduating student employment rate from 66.2% to 79.3% during her leadership tenure. Four years later, as Vice President of Business Development with Vitalwork, Inc., she rounded out her experience by helping employed mid-career professionals improve career satisfaction and business results by selling consulting services that motivated a paradigm shift in their engagement level with their work and working relationships. In summary, interactions with both individual and corporate clients throughout her career have given Patty a wealth of knowledge of the traits, skills and experiences that are most sought after by employers.

Patty graduated with a BA from St. John Fisher College, and received her MBA from Rochester Institute of Technology. She lives in Webster, New York with her husband Randy and their two children, Megan and Mitch. She also serves on the board of Lifespan, a Rochester-based not-for-profit that helps older adults take on the challenges and opportunities of aging. She is a past recipient of Rochester’s 40 Under 40 Award, and a graduate of Leadership Rochester. She served as a member of Campus2Career’s Board of Advisors for a year prior to joining their management team.