Phil joined Henry Riley & Son, Chartered Quantity Surveyors, in 1962 after leaving school and was originally based in Bedford. From 1964 to 1967 he attended The College of Estate Management in Kensington on a full-time course taking examinations of The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. Examinations successfully completed were RICS Quantity Surveying Intermediate and Final Part 1. Phil rejoined Henry Riley & Son in 1967 and became an Associate of the practice in 1975. He was promoted to manager of the Peterborough branch office in 1978 and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in 1986.
In 1986, Phil moved to Head Office in London, as an Equity Partner together with five other Partners managing a chartered quantity surveying and project management practice of approximately 120 staff. He was responsible to the Partnership for the successful management of retail projects (Merton £43m, London Colney £35m, Meadowhall £17m) together with numerous supermarkets, petrol filling stations, office developments, alteration & extension works, refurbishment projects, maintenance works, etc. He was responsible for Sainsbury Family Charitable Trust projects, an extension to the Sainsbury Visual Arts Centre at The University of East Anglia and directly dealing with members of the Sainsbury family for private developments in Westminster and Hampshire.
In 1990 Phil became a director of a limited company based in London formed initially to manage the construction of J Sainsbury and SavaCentre supermarkets under the construction management form of contract. He was responsible for the setting up of a Head Office team, on-site management of construction professionals, the formation of cost control procedures to cope with an ever-increasing workload, marketing, presentations and public relations involvement. The company undertook contracts totalling in excess of £70m during its first three years of operation.
Phil joined cba in 1998 and is now cba’s Chairman dealing with commissions for numerous national and international companies with other project management and business development duties.
Phil is a former Fellow of The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Vice Chairman of Peterborough Chamber of Commerce Construction Sector, Past President of Peterborough Rugby Union Football Club, Past President of East Midlands Rugby Union and Chairman of Peterborough Sports Aid Foundation.