Chicago Bears president and CEO Ted Phillips to retire at end of 2022 season
CHICAGO (CBS) -- After 40 years with the team, Chicago Bears president Ted Phillips will retire at the end of the season, the team announced Friday.
"I have been truly blessed with the honor of working for the Chicago Bears for 40 seasons and look forward to leading the team through the 2022 season. I appreciate the support of the McCaskey family and to be involved in overseeing this amazing growth of the Chicago Bears through the years, is a dream come true," Phillips said in a statement. "Every day has been a true pleasure and being surrounded by so many talented and wonderful people has made my job richly rewarding on many levels. I will always bleed blue and orange and forever be proud to be a part of the Chicago Bears family."
Phillips has been the team's president and CEO since 1999, and before that served in other various executive roles with the team, including as vice president of operations for six years, as director of finance for six years, and as the team's comptroller for four years.
"He started out with us as a financial expert. Anything that he was ever asked to take care of, he came through and did it very well. We've been very blessed to have him," Bears owner Virginia Halas McCaskey said in a statement.
During his time as team president and CEO, Phillips helped oversee the hiring of four general managers: Jerry Angelo in 2001, Phil Emery in 2012, Ryan Pace in 2015, and Ryan Poles in 2022.
"It's difficult to put into words how much Ted has meant to the Bears and our family. The faith that Virginia and Ed McCaskey placed in him by naming him President and CEO of the Bears has been rewarded many times over," said Bears Chairman George H. McCaskey. "He's the best boss I ever had, and when I became his boss, he handled it graciously, as he has so many other situations. He is held in high regard by his peers around the league, and deservedly so. We are lucky to have had him here as long as we did."
A search for Phillips' successor is underway, according to the Bears.
