Phil’s role as the CEO of ORBIS Dynamics is to drive the company’s vision and, with its multidisciplinary leadership team, develop groundbreaking 3D visualization and simulation software for the unmet needs of urban professionals and policymakers in public and private sectors globally. The company’s primary goal is to deliver and curate new generations of geospatial simulation software that inspire and enable collaborative discovery for better, more livable urban futures. Phil’s continuing professional work and research has been focused on the application of complex and adaptive systems for improving the spatial DNA of cities, addressing ballooning ecological, social, and economic crises arising from urban growth and intensifying climate challenges. Based on this work, he was appointed by Arizona State University as a Senior Scientist with its Global Futures Laboratory. Phil has been an international keynote speaker on healthy cities, smart cities, and on the ways and means for reshaping urban infrastructures for improving wellbeing and reducing the social and economic burden of chronic disease.
After completing his education in Architecture at Kingston University, London and becoming a licensed architect, he conducted post graduate research at the University of Wales in environmental physics and energy conservation. Phil went on to serve with Britain’s National Health Service in Oxford as a senior architect on a team designing flat-packed “kit” construction methods for hospitals and developing computational design and analytic systems for built environments and digital mapping applications. For his work, Phil received a Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Award which took him to Columbia University in New York where he completed an M.S. in Health Services Planning & Design with specialized research into the spatial DNA of health facilities and its influence on operational performance and costs. He then served as a US Public Health Service Fellow working with the Office of the Surgeon General in Washington DC on emerging medical technologies and their system wide clinical and economic impacts on public and private health care programs.
In the private sector, Phil has worked in the fields of architecture and urban design, system dynamics, 3D Software systems (BIM + GIS), & health care management consulting and analytic services. Phil’s leadership experience includes practice directorships and officer roles at Electronic Data Systems, A.T. Kearney, and Perkins & Will, and CEO roles with the US health insurance industry (large scale health care data analytics and visualization systems), and with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation based at Taliesin West in Scottsdale.
Before joining ORBIS Dynamics, Phil worked extensively with the Gila River Indian Community, its members, Elders and former President, Mary Thomas on tribal challenges encompassing inadequate rural and urban housing, chronic disease, and disconnected youth. Phil also served as a Commissioner for the City of Scottsdale’s General Plan 2035 and is assisting with the City’s current Sustainability Planning initiatives. He is a Board member of the Mesa Preservation Foundation and serves the Board of the Royal Institute of British Architects USA as its Past President. Phil and his wife, Lauren, and their Border Collie, Jack, live in Scottsdale, Arizona.