Richard D. Phillips was appointed the seventh dean of the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University in July 2014. He is also the C.V. Starr Professor of Risk Management and Insurance. From 2012-2014, he was Robinson’s Associate Dean for Academic Initiatives and Innovation; from 2006-2012, he was the Kenneth Black Jr. Chairman of the Department of Risk Management & Insurance.

Under Phillips’ leadership, Robinson is pioneering a new kind of business education, one uniquely capable of developing people from all backgrounds into talented business leaders who create value in an era of digital transformation. Emphasizing strategic research relationships with companies and the development of leaders who never stop striving for impact, Robinson helps businesses meet the real and emergent needs of rapidly changing global markets.

Phillips is an economist whose research interests are to study the impact of risk on corporate decision-making and the efficient functioning of insurance markets. He has published more than 50 scholarly publications in academic and policy journals including Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Risk and Insurance, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Financial Services Research, Journal of Law and Economics, Journal of Insurance Regulation and North American Actuarial Journal. He has contributed books published by Risk Publications, the University of Chicago Press, Kluwer Academic Publishers and the Brookings Institute. Phillips has received several research awards including twice being awarded the Robert I. Mehr Award presented by the Journal of Risk and Insurance (2008, 2009). The Mehr award is given to authors for papers written 10 years prior judged to have had the greatest impact on the field.

Beyond the university, Phillips is a corporate director at Munich American Reassurance Corporation and a senior consultant with Charles River Associates. From 2017-2018, he was president of the American Risk and Insurance Association. He also is past-president of the Risk Theory Society, formerly served as the executive director of the Georgia State University Risk Management Foundation and is a current trustee for the S.S. Huebner Foundation for Insurance Education. Phillips serves on non-profit boards for the World Affairs Council of Atlanta and as board chair emeritus for the Swift School — one of Georgia’s largest private schools serving dyslexic children.

Phillips’ doctoral and master’s degrees in managerial economics are from the Wharton School. He graduated with honors from the University of Minnesota with a B.S. in mathematics.