has over 40 years experience in performing arts management, board development, branding, marketing and PR, financial analysis, fundraising, planning, programming, venue design and construction. During his varied career, Phillips has started-up, turned-around, led, and grown several producing and presenting organizations. In 2013 he returned to the company he founded in 1995, CSTAR, with a new focus of helping arts organizations with development.
Phillips is currently working with organizations to develop and build new performing arts centers in Alameda, CA and Vancouver, WA. He has led executive and development director searches for the Argyros Performing Arts Center, Princess Grace Foundation-USA, San Francisco Playhouse, Sun Valley Museum of Art, Village Theater and others while helping develop, design and open The Argyros. In addition, he drafted campaign, development, organizational and strategic plans for organizations to navigate challenging times and ensure future success.
In 2011 Phillips worked as a project consultant for the Arts Consulting Group. With ACG he led the search for ODC/Dance’s new executive director and consulted for the Oregon Cultural Trust on how to enhance development.
Prior to that Phillips was Executive Director of Portland Center Stage, one of the fifteen largest American theater companies, which produces 455 performances and 300 additional events annually. During the most economically challenging years, his expertise helped the company to continue growing its subscriber and donor base. In addition he secured the largest-ever Capital Campaign contribution and some of the largest individual and foundation contributions in the Company’s 30-year history.
As the Executive Director of Broadway By the Bay, he produced musicals at the San Mateo Performing Arts Center, presented Broadway artists in concert and conversation, and commissioned new work. By dramatically increasing contributed income, he enabled the elimination of the 45 year-old company’s accumulated deficit.
In 1991 he founded CenterStage at the Osher Marin JCC (the San Francisco Bay Area’s 92nd St. Y) and over the next 15 seasons presented 600 events and performances. Before leaving the JCC he managed a capital campaign, secured multiple million-dollar naming gifts, led the planning efforts, and negotiated the purchase of an adjacent property to expand and upgrade the Center.
In 1995 Phillips founded CSTAR, Creative Stage Artists Management, and for the next decade represented Broadway artists including Marin Mazzie & Jason Danieley, Debbie Gravitte, Jason Graae, Liz Callaway, comedian Kate Clinton and songwriter Stephen Schwartz.
His work in television and film includes hosting and producing the first PBS home remodeling series, KQED’s Grin and Repair It (the forerunner to This Old House) and coaching Robin Williams for his role as the Russian Saxophonist in Moscow on the Hudson.
Greg Phillips holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from Marlboro College, home of Music from Marlboro and the Marlboro Music Festival.
