Phil combines a Ph.D. in Physics with 25 years of R&D leadership, including his tenure as R&D Director at Google X (The Moonshot Factory). At X, he led new project creation and was instrumental in building the lab's innovation culture.

An inventor on over 50 issued U.S. patents — spanning AI, autonomous navigation, and computational design — Phil specializes in "thinking around corners." He founded Applied Emergence to bring the rigor of complexity science to the chaos of human systems, helping leaders navigate the fog of modern business and technology.

He is also a co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer at un/owned, a collaborative innovation salon and consultancy.

As a musician, Phil thrives in collaborative improvisation, a philosophy he applies to "breaking models" in sociotechnical systems.