Tom Phillips (formally Thomas L. Phillips Jr.), is a Harvard and Stanford-trained American founder and senior business executive, whose involvements have been primarily in publishing and media ventures, both print and digital. Phillips, Graydon Carter, and Kurt Andersen founded the humor magazine, Spy, which premiered in print in October 1986, and Phillips went on to founding and executive roles at Starwave, at internet ventures of ABC News and ESPN, and at Google, and to CEO roles at Deja.com and Distillery.
Phillips is the son of a longstanding, successful Raytheon CEO and Chairman, the late Thomas L. Phillips.
Phillips received his bachelor's degree from Harvard University (1977), and his MBA from Stanford University (1981).
Phillips has been described as beginning his post-graduate career doing a "stint in venture capital", during and after which, he raised $2.8-3.0 million in capitalâÂÂincluding $30,000, or less than 5% of the total, from his father, Thomas L. Phillips, the seniorâÂÂto join Graydon Carter and Kurt Andersen in founding the "hip humor magazine", Spy, which premiered in print in October 1986. Besides founding, he served at its publisher, and then went on to become a founder and original member of the management team at Starwave. After the acquisition of Starwave by Disney, Phillips served both as president of ABC News Internet Ventures, and ESPN Internet Ventures, joint endeavors between Disney and Starwave.
In 1998, Phillips was hired as the CEO of Deja.com, subsequently selling the company's core assets to Google and eBay. By 2006, he was serving in a position with Google, as director of print advertising, with responsibilities that included managing Google client advertising in newspapers. He was subsequently put in charge of the acquisition process in Google's purchase of DoubleClick, and then served there as Director of Search and Analytics.
In 2009, Phillips left Google to become CEO of Distillery.
Phillips has been described as "lanky", and early in his career, in his 30s at the helm of Spy, he was described as riding a motorcycle to work.