He left management as a VP of Sales/Operations for a multi-million dollar San Jose based computer/copier company to establish Strong Leadership Systems in 1988. His expertise was developed through holding corporate leadership training responsibilities and sales management positions with such notable companies as IBM (Awarded 100% Club invitations four consecutive years), Ricoh as the Western Sales Manager for corporate voice integrated conferencing; Seiko International as Director of US/Canada video/computer printing, CPT Corp., Western Region computer/word processor sales operations and was a selected member of the worldwide Advisory Training Board.  He founded and managed a retail shop in Saratoga, Ca : "Maries Fashions".

Phil is a San Jose State University alumnus BA '61 and earned an MBA in 1991 from Century University, Los Angeles. He holds life-time California Teaching Credentials in Marketing and Sales.